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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I ^ - a^ii^ Bclut a^ofi.ifiO HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 3 2044 096 986 583 lor mil I drainitiD. PEISCIPI.ES AND MHiini,~' HUMAN OirLTITEE: A SGKIBS OP LintUES ADIUlESSav 1D Vm^d nwHUfi D.«Si.= Botox, F,4. 1 Wo lalia Ib'i mtAliwi uF calling y«DV aLUmtlon t'l lloii' Utstr liAKftt "Qnarlcrlf Joonuil ot Bdaealioo," ot whlcli llw dctciilli nombcr, tlu: dHi iif ilic banli Tatumu, Ihu rrNoiilly b'jui imblialinl. Thii >lourDiil, ill the two yean iluoc Mr. Damard uadcj-tMik It, hoi o vpry Imparlant ortiglH, iu auoh nT tho wtLTol liaa of labjecu ia wbioli inini ^ Iniutancil whima tpte'tiA •tMntlnii lin* bevn callvd to uiiy linkiidi of mnealfl Iu pipera ou Collrgv dDwIion,— on Publln Sduwl KilnoMinD,- iKaiithM of StOi]}',— (in the armngnnenta nf rvlvalo ImdlullDna,— oi Willi r*|pin) Ui tSdamliuD, ami dd thna? tSforU in Edumtltin Aliieli Icnk ti> d lUriinn i)f JavmilvCrimiiuli) wiUin««rinnrtIiugni|)faiaa1»Tiil Ili«iiiriMl fap* of lb* flrsi mine,— *bavrhow wide la ihc GcU of Uin Eiiitot'a cttijTt. Ws believe tlint them I* no oihcr •tnuriul nT EilucMliin tiii a jiliin «ii WDim lioiuha. Tet it it of inch ajxe tbul tlii; dinuuaicw uf nicli nf Itm ral^fcli nU TaliubU . 'iinl, nithonl iiioL or bwtatian. Ii hoi not, bnwevcr, boui pn*('d upi.m tlio M [oiinlty xilli liny oflbat porciniwlty *Iiioh aHwi liirii** inririor worbit Into vi tkiii. tTu NTR rata ihtt lu wilier circnTatlon will be a greol odvontngc to m lirlvaU InUraaia, ami ttint it nnghl not lu Iw d jHiiiiniaty huntiin b> Ihs Bdlq Wa vcDiiirv, lbcn:lnro, lo nddrca till* mile In screen) gmtlcmen ; bnpinf tli may maltiinllj mlwjji. ihn nuinb«r nf ju *ubtnrili«ra. "ni* nmini] lulncriptiun ii llitci; dolliirt, Uih Jonnnil bnlag ot page nnd t>, A-bldi glNi moM roaJiiift mnlirr lliau niumiif lliv(JiiNrb>rlyItsvie« xnin logctber, innk« a tmmttiti workc^tlia Cm Tolue. Il In publiihvil by V. 0- BRawNcii^ IbrlTuriL W«M I Sir, BspBOthillr. JOiEF obadlut Mtnatt, |t a rm a I C r a i n i n g . TEE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 07 HUMAK CULTURE: A SERIES OF LECTURES ADDRESSED TO YOUNG TEACHEHa BY WILLIAM RUSSELL, EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN (bOSTON) JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, 182G TO 1829, AND PRIN- CIPAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND NORMAL INSTITUTE, LANCASTER, MASS., ETC., ETC. PART I. INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. PART II. MORAL EDUCATION. PART III. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. PART IV. JSSTHETICAL EDUCATION. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY P. C. BROWNBLL. 1860. HARVAHD COILEGE LIB'^A:^Y EDUCAlioN DUriiCATt liiONtY y 23 1940 t . '^ PART I. INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. •PREFATORY REMARKS. \ . The series of lectures, of which the following are a part, was addressed, origin- ally, to students pursuing a course of professional study, under the author-s direction, in the Merrimack (N. H.) Normal Institute, and in the New England Normal Institute, Lancaster, Massachusetts. The course, as delivered, extended to the subjects of physical, moral, and esthetic culture ; including, under the lat- ter heads, remarks on principle as the foundation of character, and suggestions on the cultivation of taste. In the delivery of the lectures, it was deemed important to avoid the unfavor- able influence of formal didactic exposition, in a course of professional lectures to a youthful audience. £qual importance, however, was attached ta a strict observ- ance of the systematic connection of topics, and the theoretic unity of the whole subject. The method adopted, therefore, in the routine of the lecture-room, was to treat a given point daily, in a brief oral address on one prominent topic, selected from the notes embodying the plan of the whole course. At the suggestion of Dr. Henry Barnard, the notes, in their connected form, were transcribed for insertion in his Journal; and the lectures on Intellectual Education were selected for this purpose, rather as an experiment, on the part of the author, in his uncertainty how far it might be advisable to present the whole series. But the unexpectedly favorable reception which the course on intellectual education has met from teachers, both at home and abroad, would have induced the writ<».r to transcribe the other portions of the series, had health and time per- mitted. The subjects here referred to, however, will be introduced, from time to time, as may be practicable, in future numbers of Dr. Baraard's Journal. The thoughts presented in the following pages, the author hopes, may serve to attract the attention of teachers who are so situated as to occupy the ground not merely of instructors but of educators, who have it in their power to control, to some extent, the plan and progress of education ; and all teachers of the requisite zeal and thoughtfulness, even in the most limited sphere of responsibility, can do much in this way, by their personal endeavors in instruction. It is not in one de- partment only, or in one stage, that the field of education needs resurveying. PREFATORY REMARKS. The whole snbject, notwithstanding our many valuable recent improvements in processes and methods, physical and moral, as well as intellectual, needs a careful reconsideration as to its true requirements, and a thorough revision of our plan of procedure and modes of culture. It is true that, in seminaries of education of every grade, we are ceasing from a blind following of prescription imposed by the past. Mental discipline, rather than intellectual acquisition, is now more generally recognized as the true aim of education ; and liberal changes and generous allowances, as regards the adapta- tion of text-books and plans of instruction, have accordingly been made. But, as yet, the point of view selected by most even of our most considerate and genial counselors on the groat theme of education, lias been for from a commanding one. It has been that of subjects and sciences and departments of knowledge, with their respective demands upon the mind, instead of that of the mind itself, and its divine laws of action and progress, as prescribed by its own constitution and wants, its appetites and instinctive preferences. To attract attention to these, as the true principles of education, is the chief aim of the suggestions embodied in the fol- lowing pages. CONTENTS. Pack. Intellectual Education, 9 The teacher's aim in instruction, 9 Necessity uf plan iind method, JO Preliminary analysis, ^... II Outline of intellectual instruction, J3 I. TuK Pkrckptivk Facultiks, 12 1. Classification by modes of action, 12 3. Curiosity, 14 3. Observation 17 4. Knowledge, 31 5. Appropriate processes for their cultivation, 26 II. TiiK ExpRBssivK Faculties, 57 Introductory observations, 57 1. Enumeration, 58 2. The actuating principle, '70 3. Tendency or habit of action 75 4. Result of the action — communicntion, 78 5. Educational processes for their cultivation, 80 6. Means of correcting prevalent errors, 93 III. The Reflective Faculties, 101 Introductory observations, 101 1. Enumeration 102 3. The actuating principle : inquiry, 121 3. Tendency of action, , 122 4. Result of the action: truth, 125 5. Educational processes for their development, 127 Concluding explanations, 152 Index to the principal topics considered, 155 CULTIVATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. Introductory Observations. — ^The circumstances in which the fol- lowing lectures were delivered, will, it is thought, account for the prom- inence given in them to many things merely elementary, as regards the science of mind and the philosophy of education. An audi- ence favored with the advantages of high intellectual culture, or of long experience in instniction, would, doubtless, have required a dif- ferent treatment of many topics discussed in such a course of lectures as the present. But a long series of years occupied in the training of teachers, has proved to the author of the present communication, that the greater number of candidates for the oflSce of instruction, and of those to whom its duties are comparatively new, need nothing so much as an elementary knowledge of intellectual philosophy, and of logic, in their connection with education, as the science which teaches the appropriate development and discipline of the mind. The Teacher's Aim in Instruction, — Few teachers, at the present day, regard knowledge as the great end even of intellectual educa- tion. Few are now unwilling to admit that the chief aim of their daily endeavors, as instructors and educators, should be to train, develop, and discipline the powers by which knowledge is acquired, rather than tc attempt the immediate accumulation of knowledge itself. In prac- tice, however, and, more particularly, in the case of young teachers, and of those who follow the occupation as a transient one, and not as the vocation of a life-time, the eagerness for definite and apparent results, or even showy acquirements, too often induces the insti-uctor to confine his attention to the mere mechanism of specific processes, — to the committing to memory, and the repetition of a set task, with or without the aid of explanation. This course he knows will nomi- nally secure a single point in practice or effect. He thinks, perhaps, that, although not fully understood or appreciated now, it will cer- tainly benefit the mind of his pupil at some future day, when his *The series of lectures of which the present forms a part, extended to the departments of physical and moral training. But those on the progress of intellectual culture, are selected as more easily presented in the form of a series of articles for an educational Journal 10 EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. mind is more mature. Hence, we still have, in our school routine, too much of mere rule and repetition, detached fact and specific direc- tion, the lesson of the hour and the business of the day, and too little of the searching interrogation, close observation, reflective thought, and penetrating investigation, by which alone the mind can be trained to the acquisition of useful knowledge, or the attainment of valuable truth. Necessity of Plan and Method, — The master builder, when he goes to oversee his workmen, and watch their progress in the work of raising the edifice, for the construction of which he has entered into contract, never fails to carry with him his plan of erection, and with that in his hand, for constant reference, gives directions for even the minutest details in working. He does nothing but in execution of his plan, and in strict accordance with it. The master builder thus reads a lesson to the master instructor, (inward builder,) who, although he needs not plan in hand, for his peculiar work, needs it no less, ever present to his mind, if he wishes to become " a work- man that needeth not to be ashamed ; *' if, in a word, he would enjoy the conscious pleasure of referring every day's labor to its destined end of building up the mental fabric in strength, and symmetry, and endui-ing beauty. The young teacher, as he reviews the business of the day with his pupils, — and would that this were a daily practice in every school ! — should ever refer, in his own mind, at least, to the general effect of every exercise, as tending to the great results of education, — to the expansion of the mind, to the formation of habits of observation and inquiry, to control over attention, to the clearing and sharpening of the percipient faculties, to the strengthening of the mind's retentive power, to securing, in a word, intellectual tendency and character, as the basis of moral development and habit. The teacher, not less than the builder, should ever have, in his mind's eye, the plan of his edifice ; and while, during the whole process of erection, he wastes no time on fanciful theory or fantastic ornan^ent, every operation which he conducts should be, to his own consciousness, part of a great whole, tending to a grand consummation. Text-books, pro- cesses, exercises, apparatus of every description, are properly, but the pliant tools, or the subject material, in the hands of the skillful teacher, by means of which he does his great work of " building up the being that we are ; " and all these aids he arranges, selects, modifies, and applies, according to the system suggested by his plan and purpose. As the overseer and artificer of the mental fabric of character, the EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 1 1 teacher who is worthy of the name, must necessarily possess a knowl- edge of the material on which he works. It would be well, were this knowledge always profound and philosophical ; and, among tue happy anticipations suggested by the establishment of normal schools, none is more cheering than the hope that, ere long, society will be furnished with a numerous class of teachers, competent to understand and guide the young mind through all its stages of growth and de- velopment, and furnished with all the requisite means of secur- ing the noblest results of human culture. Meanwhile, the laborers who are already in the field, and who have not enjoyed, perhaps, extensive opportunities of acquiring a scientific knowledge of the chemistry of mental culture, must be content with such aids as their own observation, reading, reflection, or experience, may furnish. As a slight contribution to the common stock of professional facili- ties, the author of the present article would submit the following outline to the consideration of his fellow teachers, as an intended aid to the systematizing of their efforts for the mental advancement of their pupils. The analysis which follows, extends, it will be perceived, no farther than to the limits of intellectual education. The physical and the moral departments of culture, may be discussed at another opportu- nity, and must be dismissed for the present, with the single remark, that the natural unity of the human being, demands a ceaseless atten- tion to these, in strict conjun-ition with that more immediately under consideration. Preliminary Analysis. — Contemplating man's intellectual con- stitution as subjected to the processes of education, we may conven- iently group his mental powers and faculties under the following denominations : — perceptive^ reflective^ and expressive. In expression, as a function of man at the period of his maturity, the order, in the preceding classification, may be termed the normal or usual one. Man perceives, reflects, speaks. But in education, whether regarded as a natural process or an artificial one, the order of classification sug- gested by the experience and the history of the human being, in his early and comparatively immature condition, would present the expressive powers as in exercise long before the reflective^ and, subse- quently, as the appointed means of developing these, through the medium of language. Outline of Intellectual Culture. — An outline map, or plan of intellectual culture, as aided by the processes of education, may be carried into practical detail, as suggested by the following prominent points of analysis. 12 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 1. Classification of the intellectual fiaculties, by the different modes, or forms of mental action. 2. Statement of the actuating principle, or impelling power of each class or group of faculties. 3. The tendency, or habit of action in each class. 4. The result, or issue of such action. 5. The educational processes adapted to each class of faculties with a view to aid its natural tendency, and secure its results. From the imperfection of our language, in relation to topics strictly mental, or purely philosophical, the word faculties is unavoidably em- ployed to represent the diversities in modes of action of the mind, which, in itself, is, properly speaking, one and indivisible. But if we keep fully before us the etymological signification of the i&cm facul- ties^ (resources, means, powers,) we shall regard it but as a figurative t,xpression, suggestive of the indefinitely diversified states, acts, opera- liciis, processes, powers, or modes of action, attributable to the mind, — itself a unit. Adopting the general classification before referred to, we may com- mence the partial filling up of our outline with 1. THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 1. Their modes or forms of action : d, sensation ; 6, perception ; c, attention : rf, observation. 2. Actuating principle^ or impelling force, curiosity, — or the desire of knowledge. 3. Tendency, or habit of action, — observation. 4. Result, or issue of action, — knowledge, 6. Educational process, forms of exercise, or modes of culture, de- velopment, and discipline suggested by the four preceding considera- tions, — examination, analysis, inspection, interrogation, direction, in- formation^ comparison, classification, induction. In other words, the appropriate presentation of objects to the senses, accompanied by mu- tual question and answer by teacher and pupil ; — with a view to quicken sensation, awaken perception, give power of prompt and sus- tained attention, confirm the habit of careful observation, stimulate curiosity, and insure the extensive acquisition of knowledge. (1.) CLASSIFICATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES, BY THEIR MODES OF ACTION. (a,) Sensation, — the organic action by which objects, facts, and rela- tions are presented to the mind, through the media of the senses, and which form the conditions of perception. {h,) Perception, or cognition, — ^the intellectual action by which the EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. J 3 mind perceives, (takes notice, or cognizance of,) data presented by the senses. (c,) Attenttorif — the mental action by which, under the incitation of desire or volition, the percipient intellect tends, for the purposes of distinct cognizance, towards the object, fact, or relation presented to it. (c?,) Observation, — the voluntary, sustained, or continuous exercise of attention, with which the mind directs itself toward the object of its contemplation, for the purpose of complete intuition and perfect rec- ognition. All the terms now defined, are but different designations for the various forms in which the intuitive action of the intellectual princi- ple is solicited by objects external to itself. The English language, as the product of mind working chiefly in practical directions, posses- ses little of the clearness and distinctness in nomenclature which the topics of intellectual analysis so peculiarly require. But the four terms used above are sufficient to comprise the prominent forms of perceptive action, in the various processes of intellection. They all refer significantly enough, to the first efforts of intelligence, when, previous to any introversive or reflective act, of comparatively sub- tile or intricate character, it obeys the instinct of its appetite, and finds its sustentation by feeding on the aliment tendered to it by its Author, in the objects which environ it. To watch and guide, and cooperate with this instructive principle, is the true office of educa- tion, as a process of nurture and development, working not in arbi- trary or artificial, but in salutary and successful forms, — forms not devised by the fallible ingenuity of man, but by the unerring wisdom of Supreme intelligence. Prevalent error in the order of cultivation, — Contrary, however, to the obvious suggestions of fact, education is still too generally regard- ed as consisting, during its earlier stages, in arbitrary exercises of memory on combinations of printed characters, abstract numbers, or even the metaphysical relations involved in the science of grammar. The excuse offered for a blind following of precedent in this direction, usually is the peculiar susceptibility of memory, during the period of childhood, and the comparative difficulty experienced in attempts to cultivate it at a later stage. Were the educational cultivation of memory directed to the retaining and treasuring up of those stores of knowledge which are naturally accessible to the mind of childhood, within the range of its daily observation, the plea would be justifia- ble ; man's endeavors would be in harmony with the obvious instincts and endowments of the mind, and would tend to its natural exn^an- 14 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACUI.TIEa sion and development. But directed to the mechanical and arbi- trary results at which these endeavors so generally aim, their influ- ence is detrimental. Their immediate effect is to quench the natural thirst for knowledge, to create a distaste for intellectual activity, and tiius to defeat the best purposes of education. The law of true culture lies in the primary craving of the young mind for material on which the understanding may operate ; digest- ing it, in due season, into the regular form of knowledge which mem- ory loves to retain, and which judgment ultimately builds up into the systematic arrangements of science. (2.) CURIOSITY, THE ACTUATING PRINCIPLE OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. The Teacher's proper place, — The teacher who enters intelligently upon his work of cultivating the minds entrusted to his care, knows that his chief duty is to cherish the spontaneous action of their pow- ers, and to make them intelligent and voluntary co-workers in their own development. He observes, therefore, with careful attention, the natural tendencies and action of the intellectual system, as the physiologist does those of the corporeal, so as to become competent to trace the law of development, and adapt his measures to its re- quirements. He thus becomes qualified to take his proper place, as an humble but efficient co-worker with the Author of the mind, rec- ognizing and following His plan, in modes suggested by a wisdom higher than human. • The attentive study and observation of the natural workings of the mind, in the successive stages of its progress, from incipient intelligence to maturity of reason, imply, however, not merely a care- ful analysis of the facts and modes of mental action, but a watchful observation, with a view to detect, in all cases, the moving power or impelling principle of action, to aid and regulate which is the educator's chief work. The ceaseless intellectual activity of child- hood, maintained through the various media of perception, furnished by the organs of sense, is obviously stimulated by the constitutional principle of curiosity^ an eager desire to know and understand^ and therefore, to observe and examine. Hence the irrepressible and search- ing questions with which children, in the instinct of faith, appeal to whomsoever they think can satisfy their craving for information. To feed this mental appetite, to select and prepare its proper nutri- ment, to keep it in healthy and healthful activity, to quicken and[ strengthen it, to direct and guide it, as a divine instinct, leading to the noblest ends, should be the teacher's constant endeavor. To awaken curiosity is to secure a penetrating and fixed attention, — the EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 1 5 prime condition of human knowledge ; and even when it leads no further than to wonder, it is preparing the advancing mind for the awre and the reverence with which, in later stages of its progress, it looks up to the knowledge which is " too high for it." The emotion of wonder analogous to the iiistinct of curiosity, — Cu- riosity, like the kindred element of wonder, finds its sustenance in whatever is new to sensation or perception ; wonder^ in turn, leads the mind to dwell on whatever i&strangej intricate^ or remote ; aston-- ishment, arrests it by whatever is sudden and powerful ; awe com- mands it by whatever is vast ; and amazement overwhelms it by whatever is incomprehensible or inscrutable. Yet all of these effects, — even those which, for the moment, act on the perceptive intellect with a repulsive force that makes it recoil in conscious weakness from the object of contemplation,- — are but various forms of stimulating, im- pelling, or attracting force, acting on the irrepressible vitality of the mind ; and no incitements are ultimately more powerful in maintain- ing the most resolute and persevering activity of its powers. Mental effects of novelty and variety, — In the great primary school of nature, as established and furnished by the Author of all, we ob- serve, accordingly, that in the multiform variety of objects with which the young human being is surrounded, at the first dawning of intelligence within him, the novelty of the whole scene around him, and of every class of objects which it presents, is forever tempting his susceptible spirit to observe and examine, and explore, by the con- scious delight which every new step affords him. Evils of monotony y and advantages of variety. — Nor is the obvious design of the great Instructor less conspicuous in the feeling of satiety and weariness which is always superinduced by continued sameness of mental action, whether prolonged in the same mode of exercise, or on the same class of objects. The observant teacher thus learns his own lesson of duty, — to avoid undue limitation in the objects and forms of intellectual action, to shun sameness and monotony of rou- tine, and protracted exertions of attention, as all tending to exhaust and enfeeble the mental powers. His endeavors, on the contrary, are all directed to a due diversity in the presentation of objects, and in the mode of mental activity which they call forth ; and, in whatever instances frequent repetition is indispensable to exact perception, he is particularly careful to exert his ingenuity to the utmost, in devising new modes of presentation, so as to secure fresh and earnest atten- tion to the same objects or facts, by the renovating effect of the new lights and new aspects in which he causes them to be viewed. 16 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. Faults in former mode^ of education, — It is unneoesRaiy, in oup day, to dwell on the obvious faults of the obsolete practice of con- fining young children within doors at all seasons, compelling them to remain long in one attitude or posture without relief condemning them to long periods of silence and constraint, and forcing them to con unmeaning and irksome tasks. These injurious practices are now, for the most part renounced ; and more genial and rational modes of early education are beginning to prevail. As yet, however, we have only made a beginning. We have reformed our modes of school architecture, and have allowed children the unspeakable benefits of space and air, and more frequent change of place, and posture, and exercise. Objects and pictures are now employed, to some extent, as instruments of mental culture ; and the wisdom of all these changes is proved in the greater happiness and better health of our little pu- pils, and, more particularly, in their greater docility, and their supe- rior intellectual progress, as contrasted with the state of things under the former regime of irksome monotony, restraint, weariness, and stu- pidity. We are very far, yet, however, from approaching the boun- tiful variety and delightful novelty furnished in the great model school of infancy and childhood, as established by the Divine founder. Intellectual furniture of school-rooms, — Our primary school-rooms should be so many cabinets of nature and art. Every inch of wall not indispensably required for blackboard exercises, should be se- cured for educational purposes, by specimens of plants, minerals, shells, birds, and whatever else can be appropriately placed before the eye. The arranging, classifiyiug, and describing of these, should pre- cede any analysis or st^dy of letters or syllables. Pictures repre- senting such objects, should form a second stage of exercises in atten- tion, observation, and description, before any alphabetic drilling what- ever. The examination of objects and of pictures, should, in a word, form the natural preparatory training of the perceptive faculties for the more arbitrary and more diflScult exercise of studying and recog- nizing the unmeaning, uninteresting forms of alphabetic characters with their phonetic combinations. . Injurious effects of mere alphabetic drilling, — Curiosity, the nat- ural incitement of intellect, is easily awakened when we obey the law of the Creator, and direct it to His works, — the natural and appro- priate stimulants of the perceptive powers of infancy ; but when, leaving our proper sphere, and restricting our educational efforts to the mechanical training of eye and ear, we use these organs, and the informing mind, for the limited purpose of recognizing the complica- ted and irregular geometrical combinations of line and angle, pre- EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIEa ^f sen ted in alphabetic characters, and repeating the sounds so arbi- trarily associated with these, we take the mind out of its native ele- ment ; we consequently force and distort its growth, dwarf its stat- ure, and enfeeble its powers. Effects of the salutary excitement of the feeling cf wonder, — But it is not in the first stages only of mental culture, that the influence of novelty and variety is required as an incitement to observation, by the frequent presentation of new and fresh objects of attention, by the agreeable surprises occasioned by new forms and new stages of animal and vegetable life, — all tending to excite a lively curiosity, which leads, in turn, to careful attention, close examination, and suc- cessful study. Curiosity should often be awakened by the yet more powerful influence of wonder. Objects rare and strange, combina- tions intricate and even puzzling, should sometimes be called in, to excite a yet more energetic action of the perceptive intellect, in its endeavors to grasp the objects of its contemplation. Whatever in nature is wonderful, — whether we employ the micro- scope, in revealing the intricate structure of plant or insect, in the minuter and closer examination of the works of the Creator ; or the telescope, in the contemplation of the starry heavens, and the study of the magnitudes and motions of the bodies which people the depths of space, — all should be brought to bear on the young mind, to call forth that sense of wonder which so delights and inspires it, and pre- pares it, at the same time, for the influence of those sentiments of awe and reverence with which the advancing intellect learns to trace the signatures of Deity. (3.) OBSERVATION, AS THE TENDENCY OF MENTAL HABIT, UNDER THE INCITING INFLUENCE OP CURIOSITY. The natural effect of intellectual instinct. — The motive power, or impelling force, by which, in the ordinations of the mind's omnis- cient Author, its perceptive faculties are incited to activity, and induced to render their tribute to the resources of intelligence, con- sists in that restless desire to observe, to, examine, and to know, which constitutes man a progressively intelligent being. Impelled by this insatiable mental thirst, he is led instinctively to those streams of knowledge which constitute the waters of intellectual life. His per- ceptive powers thus stimulated, acquire a tendency to ceaseless activ- ity, — a trait which forms the peculiar characteristic of the early stages of his mental progress, and which is greatly quickened by the vividness of sensation in the constitution of childhood. Hence the promptness and versatility of attention at that period, and its remark- able susceptibility to the influences of cultivation and discipline. 18 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. Tliese aids, it is true, are, as yet, too scantily furnished in tbe pro- cesses of education ; and, even without them, the human being, as he advances under the promptings of instinct, and the guidance of self-intelligence, attains, as in the case even of the savage, to a high degree of perceptive power. The keen, quick, and penetrating glance of his eye, the acuteness and certainty of his ear, the readi- ness and exactness of his observation of every object within the range of his vision, the searching closeness of inspection with which he ex- amines everything new or uncertain, often furnish an impressive lesson on the value of training, to those whose means and opportuni- ties of intellectual culture are so superior to his own. Effects of cherishing the habit of observation, — ^The habit of obser- vation, duly cherished in early years, by the judicious care of the parent and teacher, becomes the security for ample acquisitions in the field of knowledge, and for the daily accumulation of mental resources and of intellectual power. The obsen^ant mind, like the close-knit net of the skillful fisherman, encloses and retains the living treasures within its sweep, and deposits them, for use, in their appropriate place. The undisciplined, inattentive, unobservant spectator seizes and re- tains nothing in his slack and ineffectual grasp. Suggestive significance of terms in intellectual and educational re* lations. — ^The etymology of the word apprehension, (seizing, grasping, laying hold of,) suggests an important lesson regarding the value of intellectual training, as dependent on the habit of attentive and close observation. The word attention, (tending, reaching, or stretching toward,) is not less instructive in its signification, implying the ten- dency, or the gravitating of the mind's perceptive power toward the object of notice, for the purpose of cognizance, as the firet stage of intelligence. The term observation, (watching, with a view to obey or follow,) is yet more monitory to the teacher ; as it intimates that the true study of external nature demands vigilance, docility, and fidelity ; in one word, the devotion of the whole mind to the busi- ness of intellectual acquisition. Perception, (taking, through a me- dium,) refers us back to the humble oflfice of sensation, as indispensa- ble to the process of taking into the mind the treasures of knowl- edge offered to the grasp of sense, for the purpose of transmission to the percipient power, the inner principle of intelligence. All of these terms, in the nomenclature of mental science, tend to the same important end, in the uses of practical education : they all point to the appropriate discipline of the perceptive faculties, by means of objects addressed to the senses, as the primary stage of intellectual culturQ, EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIBLE FACVLTIE0. 19 EdtLcational errors, — Former modes of education rendered the use of terms such as the preceding, a nullity, or an absurdity. The child shut up within the naked walls of a school-room, seated on his un- comfortable bench, and mechanically conning by rote, the ill-fitting names of alphabetic elements, or trying to piece them into syllables, had little use of the precious gift of sense, but a few lines and angles to perceive^ — unless a friendly fly should happen to alight upon the page of his primer, — no inducement to attention but the fear of Sol- omon's prescription for '^ minds diseased," nothing half so interesting to observe as the little winged being accidentally crawling on the page before him, displaying the curiously constructed mechanism of its form, its gauzy wings, and many-feathered little limbs, or stopping now and then, to dry-rub instead of washing them, and its tiny head, and flexible bit of neck, almost too diminutive to be seen. But woe to the little student of nature, in the genuine act of observation^ if he should lift his eye from his book, and follow his brisk little visitant flying off to perform the visible miracle of walking up the perpendic- ular plane of the window pane, or the yet more puzzling feat of walk- ing the ceiling with his head downward. Rational method. — The child, in the case supposed, indicates the real want of his nature, and mutely, but most eloquently, pleads for a lesson on insect life, (entomology,) before one on the alphabet. Furnished with the data which the lesson on insect life and form, character and motion, would present to his eye, he would be receiving a rational preparatory discipline of attention and observation, in the close and careful examination of all the details of shape and configu- ration, exhibited in the living and attractive object before him. His recognition of figure and outline, thus secured, he would, in due sea- son, transfer, easily and willingly, to the artificial display of them in the' forms of printed characters. Benefits resulting from the early formation of habits of attentive observation, — The early training of the perceptive faculties, by a va- ried and genial discipline of the power of attention, so as to render the habit of observation an unfailing characteristic of the man, be- comes doubly valuable, as a result of education, when we regard its effects on the intellectual tastes and pursuits of individuals. A taste for the study of nature, early formed, leads to the practice of col- lecting specimens, and thus furnishing the means of successful study to the person himself, who collects them, and at the same time to all whom he is disposed to aid in such pursuits. Were even the ele- ments of botany, geolo^, mineralogy, and zoology, generally adop- ted, as they ought to be, as subjects of attention in primary education. 20 BDUCATKW OF THE PfiRCBPTIVE PACVLTIE8. % knowledge of natural science, would, ere long, bo diffused through- out our community ; a taste for the study of nature would become an intellectual trait of our people ; the pursuit of agriculture, abrori- culture, and horticulture, would be more intelligently and more ad- vantageously followed ; the citizen would doubly relish his season of respite in the, country; taste and intelligence would extend their influence over all modes of life ; and science would be unspeakably a gainer, in its noble purposes and offices, by the multitude of active minds and busy hands called in to collect, and contribute materials for its various forms of investigation. The field of human knowl- edge might thus be indefinitely enlarged, and its advantages and enjoyments be more extensively diffused. But it is not merely as a matter of scientific progress, or of taste and enjoyment, that the proper training of the perceptive foculties, by means of objects and observation, rather than by the materials furnished in books, becomes an important consideration in the plan- ning of modes of education, and methods of instruction. Practical utility, also, has its claim to urge in this relation. The larger num- ber of persons, even in the most advanced communities, as regards civilization and refinement, are occupied in some form of active exer- tion, as the daily vocation of individuals ; and while no generous mind can ever look on education as a benefit or a blessing, if it is to be used as a means of training for the occupation of a given caste, it is not less true, that every individual, in whatever class of society> would be vastly benefited by an early course of cultivation on all subjects akin to those which are to form the staple of his mode of life. Botany, geology, chemistry, entomology, for instance, all have their relations to agriculture ; and a few hours devoted weekly to the elements of these sciences, will, by their inspiring influence on the young mind, expedite rather than retard the ordinary processes of school education. Importance of commencing early the study of Nature. — But while no formal or extensive study of these branches can be rationally attempted in primary education, it is most emphatically true, that, in the study of nature, more than in other forms of intellectual action, nothing can be advantageously done but on condition of an early be- ginning, and the judicious improvement of the opportunity afforded during the period of leisure and susceptibility which occurs to all human beings but once in life. Childhood and youth are, by the Creator's appointment, the period for forming taste and acquiring habits. The most resolute struggles in after years, seldom succeed in effecting a change of mental occupation, or in lending attractive inter- BDUCATEON OF THE PERCEPTITE PACULTIEB. 21 est to new pursuits. The "pliant hour " roust be taken for all pnn cesses of mental budding, grafting, or pruning, as well as in those of the orchard. An early dip into the study of nature, will serve to saturate the whole soul with a love for it so strong as to insure the prosecution of such subjects for life. The season is auspicious ; the senses are fresh and susceptible ; the mind is awake ; the heart is alive ; the memory is retentive ; nature is yet a scene of novelty and delight ; and application is a pleasure. The twig may now be bent in the direction in which the tree is to be inclined. Universal susceptibility to instruction^ drawn from Nature, — In a diversified experience of nearly forty years in the field of education, one teacher, at least, can testify that he has not yet found the mind so dull, or the heart so callous, as to resist the attractive intellectual influence of the analysis of even one plant or one mineral. The mysteries of beauty and awe which hang over such objects, as an investing celestial glory, entrancing the imagination and the heart, and all but translating the intellect itself^ have a power of attraction which the dullest, coarsest, and most brutalized boy in a ragged school, cannot resist. But of the moral influence of early education, when directed to the aspects of nature, it will be liiore appropriate to speak in that special connection. Effects produced on mental character^ hy the study of Nature, — The solidity and the firmness of mental cJiaracter, which are acquired by the study of thinys, preceding and accompanying that of words and books, are a natural eflect of the early and seasonable cultivation of the habit of observing, analyzing, comparing, and classifying, which even the slight examination of any natural object induces. — A clear, decisive, and discriminating judgment, and a retentive memory, are among the other fruits of that mental training which commences with definite objects, capable of being analyzed and reconstructed by the natural and appropriate action of the young mind, in virtue of its own powers and native tendencies. But these considerations, also be- long properly to another and more advanced stage of intellectual dis- cipline, at which the reflective faculties, and maturing reason, are beginning to put forth their claims for culture and development, in addition to the preparatory training which they may have received in the blended exercises of sense and intellect, in the action of the perceptive faculties. (4.) KNOWLEDGE, THE INTELLECTUAL RESULT OF THE ACTION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. Impelled by the instinct of curiosity, and guided by the habit of observation, the young mind, — whether more or less assisted by V 22 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. education, — advances to the goal designated by creative Wisdom, — the acquisition of knowledge^ the appointed means for erecting the fabric of character on the scale outlined by the Great Architect, but left to man's industry and intelligence, for the filling up and the sym- metry of detail. The part of education which lies more immediately before us, as the object of our attention, being the cultivation of the intellect, the acquisition of knowledge becomes, in this view, a consideration of primary importance, as, at once, a source of intellectual wealth and power, and a most effective means of mental development Knowledge, as a result of culture, is undoubtedly of inferior value to discipline. But the efforts put forth in the acquisition of genuine knowledge, are, in themselves, a disciplinary process, and the indis- pensable instruments of further cultivation. Yet more, — intellectual acquirements are true and durable riches, — valuable for their own sake, not merely from the resources which the accumulation of them places at the mind's command, but from their own intrinsic value, as imperishable because intellectual things, and as the successive steps of mental elevation in the scale of being. In reference to intellect, knowledge is, in one most important sense, an end, not less than a means and a measure of progress. Profound, extensive, and varied knowledge, is one of the crowning glories of man, as an intellectual and progressive being, capable of ceaseless development and acquisi- tion. Most emphatically is this true of him, the soundness, and ex- actness, and completeness, of whose knowledge, are the assurance that he shall be a safe and competent guide along the path of edu- cation. Actual knowledge, — ^But what is knowledge ? How is it acquired ? — not by the repetition of the words or the processes of others, not by the transfer from one mind to another of the verbal statements of fact or of abstract principles, not by the formation of vague and partial notions, formed on superficial data, and floating loosely in the mind, not by a half perception or half consciousness of something indefinite or supposititious, not by an assent to rash assumptions or confident assertions, not by the recollections of extensive reading, or perhaps, of attentive listening, retailed in fluent expression, not by accumulating the amplest furniture of second-hand theories and sys- tems, whether plausible or absurd, or even logically consistent. Knowledge is what we have experienced in our own intellect, by means of our own observation or reflection, the fruit of personal perception, or of conscious reason, acting on the positive data of sensation. So narrowly must the te^rm be limited, when we refer to the action EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPHVE FACULTIES. 23 of the perceptive faculties, or to their appropriate training and disci- pline. Knowledge, in these relations, is the accurate intetpretation of the facts of sense, in matters, usually, of color, form, number, weight, or sound, and the relations which these bear to one another in the processes of induction and classification. With the other sense of the term, in which it refers whether to truth or to theory, and im- plies the deductions of reflective reason^ we have not, at present, to do. It belongs to a subsequent stage of the analysis of the modes of mental action, as subjected to the processes of intellectual cultiva- tion, and occurs in connection with the discipline of the " reflective " £eu;ulties. Literal accuracy of verbal statement, a false test of knowledge, — The acquisition of knowledge, however, is, notwithstanding all our advances, of late years, in the philosophy of education, too generally confounded with the repetition of the verbal statements of definitions, rules, and systems, as contained in books, even in relations so palpa-> ble as those of form and numbers. The test of knowledge, accord- ingly, with some teachers, to this day, is, even in the exact sciences, the fluency with which a definition or a rule is orally repeated, ver- batim, from a text-book, and the mechanical accuracy or despatch with which a correspondent problem is solved, or a proposition demonstrated. True tcnmoledge experimental and personal, — True perceptive knowledge, on the other hand, or that which is actual and personal, implies, in all relations of form and number, that the individual who possesses it, has seen the object in question, or its representative, in palpable shape, in surface or in outline, that he has subjected it to actual measurement and comparison, or has an exact image of its form and configuration before his mind, that he has actually counted or grouped objects in numbers presented to the eye or to the mind, or that he has compared these with one another, and traced their re- lations, by strict and exact observation ; and the proper oflfice of the text- book is but to confirm and embody the result, and classify it in the exact language and systematic arrangement of formal science, as the specimens are labelled and shelved in a collector's cabinet. The use of scientific method, in the statements of text-books, is but to give logical arrangement to mental acquisitions, not to induce mere assent, whether silent or oral, and not to &cilitate the mere repetition or verbal enunciation of propositions. The proper business of the teacher, as a superintendent of mind. — The true oflSce of the teacher is to see that the pupil is led by his own conscious experience, and observation, through the process of 24 BDVOATiON or THE PSRCEPTIVI FACULT1B& perception prescribed in every exercise which he attempts ; that the operation is intelligently performed at every step, and the result ren- dered certain, as far as the limitations of human fiiculties permit By frequently repeated performance of the requisite process, the prin- ciple in question thus becomes an integral part of personal knowledge with the individual ; and his faculties receive, at the same time, a discipline which gives them facility and force in all analogous pro- cedure in which expertness and skill are desirable attainments. In due season, also, he is able to sum up his acquirements in knowl- edge, in the clear and definite and precise language which science demands, and of which his text-book furnishes a perfect specimen on which he can rely. At first, however, the young operator may need even the palpable aid of actual objects ; and the judicious teacher knows well when to give, and when to withhold such help, when to appeal to the black- board, and when to have his pupil rely on the mind's eye, during the successive stages of intellectual training. He is careful, however, not ^ to slight or hurry over the business of the rudimental course^ in which the reference to actual objects is the main reliance for a sure personal knowledge of the facts of form and number. The collateral discipline, also, arising from the attentive observation and careful study of plants, minerals, leaves, insects, and other natural objects, the intelligent teacher values highly, from the power of attention, and the habit of exact observation, which it tends to secure, by the dofi- nitencss which it gives to the action of the mind, and the certainty which it stamps on knowledge. Contrasted examples of neglect and culture, — ^True education has no more striking proof of its good effect than may be observed, when the apathy and ignorance of young persons who have been allowed to neglect the observation and study of nature in childhood, and afterwards to go through a class-drill on a given branch, by means of a text-book, are contrasted with the intelligent personal interest and intimate knowledge of those who have been wisely induced to turn an eariy attention on the productions of nature, and thus to acquire an early love for such studies, and a life-long enjoyment of the pleasures which they afford. Adults of the former class take little interest in the ^ floral apostles " of the poet, who are ceaselessly preaching the perfection of their Source, or in the pebble at their feet, which, to the intelligent eye, is the medallion struck by the Creator's hand, in commemoration of one of the epochs in His reign. These eloquent monitions of a perpetual Divine presence, are, to such minds, the dead letter of a handwriting which they have not been accustom* EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIE& 25 ed to trace, and on which their listless eye £dls, as does that of the sceptic, on the page of written revelation. The mind, on tne other hand, which has heen early trained to an intelligent personal interest in the productions of Creative wisdom and power, enjoys a personal property, and a personal reference, in every object in nature, finds, in *^ the meanest flower that blows, thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears ; " and ultimately to it, *^ The delicate forest flower. With fragrant breath, and look so like a smile. Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mould. An emanation of the indwelling Life, A visible token of the Uf^olding Love, Which are the soul of this wide universe." The definiteness and the certainty, however, which give conscious life and power to all such knowledge, depend, to a great extent, on the faithful training which the perceptive power has undergone in the nurturing Btage of education. The poet whose words of truth and love convince us that he has atoned to the rank of an inspired seer, set out on his career from the common starting place of infancy, in blank ignorance of every object and of every fact around him ; and his brother bard whose office it is to announce, in the language of astronomy, the harmony of the spheres, and read to mankind the legislation of the heavens, had no vantage ground at his outset on those excursions which ultimately extend beyond Orion and the Pleiades. Kor was there any special dispensation antecedent to the slow but sure processes of culture, in favor of the electrician who, in the maturity of his acquirements, became competent to transmit and diffuse intel- ligence with the literal rapidity of lightning ; and what shall we say of the barefooted mason's boy, who commences his career of " glory and of joy," plodding over the stone which he has broken with his unpraciiced apprentice hammer, and, at length, reads, from that same fragment, to the delight and astonishment of mankind, the facts of an antediluvian world ? All the treasures which such minds have brought from their various explorations, as tributes to the treasury of science, and to man's dominion in the sphere of knowledge, are but the varied fruits of unwearied, progressive observation, accumulating fact upon fact by the patient process of attentive examination of objects, and by the skillful exercise of well disciplined perceptive fac- ulties. Such noble efforts of mental power we contemplate with a delight mingled with reverence and gratitude to their authors, as benefactors of the race. The worship which human ignorance, in its wondering admiration, extended, of old, to the mythic demi-god and hero, might, we think, have been pardoned had it been offered to 26 EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. our venerated contemporary Humboldt, who, at an age rarely attained by modem man, withdraws, at intervals, from the onerous duties of a councilor of state, to record the acquisitions of a mind which, from early years, has been exploring the wonders of nature, and now, year after year, pours forth another and another book of the great epic of creation, to which he has so appropriately given the sublime title, «* Cosmos." The written life of this truly great man, however, only enables us to trace the progress of another watchful observer of nature, as, step by step, he observes, examines, compares, classiOes, aggregates, and accumulates, till he stands before us an intellectual Atlas, upholding the sphere of human knowledge. Liberal education, favorable oppor- tunities faithfully improved, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and devoted application to the acquisition of it, explain the wonder. Let us inquire then, for a moment, into the processes by which human culture achieves the miracle of such results. (5.) THE APPROPRIATE EDUCATIONAL PROCESSES FOR THE EXERCISE, DEVELOPMENT, AND DISCIPLINE, OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. The law of progressive intellection, — ^Watching the successive steps of roan's intellectual development, as he advances, consciously or un- consciously, in pliancy and power of mind, we see him first incited by ai\ irrepressible principle of curiosity^ stimulating him to watchful attention, close observation^ and minute inspection^ for the purpose of acquiring a satisfactory knowledge of things around him ; that he may, in due season, be prepared to enter upon a new and higher cycle of his ceaseless progress, and from the materials of perception^ feed the reflective faculties of judgment and rea^on^ which lead to the higher goal of truth, where alone the cravings of intellect can find rest and satisfaction. Provision of educational apparatus. — The first care of the watch- ful and intelligent teacher, as the guide and director of the intellect, is obviously, in compliance with the law of intellectual progress, as traced above, to make liberal provision of the palpable material of perception, by which the instinctive appetite of curiosity is at once fed and stimulated, attention awakened, observation secured, and knowledge attained. Objects abundant in number, and varied in character, form and aspect, but chiefly those furnished by nature, and, more particularly, those which occuf most frequently within the range of the child's actual observation, are the true and appropriate apparatus of his education. To the examination and inspection of these his mind naturally tends ; to the process of extracting knowl- edge from these, his perceptive poweis are expressly adapted ; in such EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 27 occupation he takes delight ; working on such materia], he is inspired by the consciousness of progress and of perpetually augmenting vigor ; and thus he becomes a willing and efficient, because an intelligent agent in his own development. DisciPUNE OP THE Senses. — Siffht / coloT. — Scnsatiou, though the humblest form of mental action, being the first in the natural order of intellectual development, suggests to the parent and teacher the great importance of a due attention to the early cultivation of the senses, especially of those whose action is so distinctly intellectual in character and result as is that of sight and hearing. The proper or- ganic training of the eye implies, what is too often overlooked, an attentive regard to co/or, as well as /orm; the former of these being very early developed, and evidently, in all normal cases, a source of peculiar delight in infancy, not less than of high aesthetic gratification in subsequent appreciation of beauty, both in nature and art. Long before the infant shows any distinctive recognition or appreciation of form, it manifests a keen perception and intense pleasure in the obser- vation of all objects of brilliant color. Under the management of the judicious mother, balls of the three grand primary colors of the painter, — blue, red, and yellow, — form an inexhaustible source of pleasure to the infant eye ; while they give an unconscious exercise and discipline to the perceptive factilty, and prepare the way for the subsequent, definite, and intelligent recogni- tion of the great lines of distinction drawn on the field of vision by the Hand which has blended color with light. Field or garden flow- ers, or even wayside weeds, placed within the range of the eye, serve a similar purpose. Subsequently, the principal intermediate grada- tions of color, as they occur in objects of nature or of art, in varied tints and hues, may be presented to the sight, in due succession, as a pleasing exercise for the faculties of childhood, in its progress. For this purpose, flowers, the prism, the tints and half tints of the clouds, the glow, or the hue of evening and morning skies, throughout the year ; the ever-varying colors of autumn, from their fullest flush to their gradual waning and decay ; all are admirable materials for the intel- lectual and aesthetic cultivation of the human being, along the suc- cessive stages of his development. The mind early trained to a sense of the beauty of color, can hardly be withheld, in after years, from the profoundest application to the study of light, as " a feast of nec- tared sweets, where no crude surfeit reigns." Purity and perfection of taste in art, are another sure result of early cultivation, in this res- pect. How much intelligence, and how much intensity of pure and even sacred gratification, may thus be superadded to the sentiment 28 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVR FACULTIES. of reverential delight in the works of the Creator, it would be diffi- cult for even the most skillful master of expression to say. Form, — The early cultivation of a discriminating perception of the distinctive characters oi form^ through a carefully conducted, pro- gressive discipline on objects submitted to the eye, is one of the most purely intellectual .processes to which the mind of childhood can be subjected. The cube, the sphere, the cylinder, the cone, the pyra- mid, when judiciously introduced among the playthings of early childhood, as was strikingly exemplified in the schools of Pestalozzi, become unconsciously, but most surely, a basis and standard in all the relations of form ; and, under the guiding suggestions of the teacher, they tend to give the mind definiteness and certainty in its action, on whatever relates to geometrical details of figure in nature, art, or mechanism. The primary truths of solid, superficial, and lin- ear geometry, are thus imbedded in the mind, identified with its ac- tion on all visible objects, and help to constitute the observer an intelligent spectator, through life, of the grand elemental forms of the universe. Measure, — Convenience and utility, too, have their claims to urge in favor of an early discipline of the eye on all details of measure- ment. An exact appreciation of measure, for in-door purposes, should be laid in permanent inch, and half and quarter inch marks, on the school-room wall ; and to ^hese should be added those of the foot and the yard. A mile, with its subdivision into halves, and quarters, should be measured oflf^ as a permanent standard for the young eye, as it approaches or leaves the threshold of the school-room. The acre and the rod, and all other details of land measure, should be made familiar to the eye of boyhood, by express measurement, in the nearest accessible field or square. dumber, — Veritable ideas of number belong, also, to the early dis- cipline of the eye, and are greatly dependent on the actual presentation of objects, for this special purpose. We read, in the accounts of one English exploring voyage, that the inhabitants of one group of islands in the Pacific, had do definite ideas of any number over five; and ex- perienced teachers are well aware that, in the case of pupils accus- tomed to depend on the mere verbal memory of the words which represent numbers, and unprovided with a firm basis of actual obser- vation of palpable objects, and the personal knowledge which such experience gives, there is an obstinate difficulty in forming definite and distinct conceptions of numbers, which resembles, too nearly, the confusion and helplessness of mind felt by those unfortunate island- EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. ' 29 ers, in their attempts to transcend the limits of their terminal num- ber, ^ve. Most of the early arithmetical operations of very young pupils, should consist in handling and counting visible objects, in enumera- ting marks, in grouping objects and marks, in "numbers gradually pro- gressive, from the smallest to the largest in amount ; so as to secure expertness and promptn^ in the process of addition, in varied forms. Successive exercises should follow in multiplication, in subtraction, and division, all performed, day after day, on visible objects handled, and on marks expressly made for such purposes of training, before the purely mental processes of arithmetic are attempted on abstract numbers, even of the smallest groups. A prevalent error with teach- ers still continues to be that of merely exemplifying true teaching in such forms as have been mentioned, for a limited period, too limited to tell upon the habits of the mind. Long continued training alone, is adequate to the proper purposes of discipline, certainty and skill, namely, in forming combinations which must sometimes be both ex- tensive and complicated. It is unreasonable to expect rapidity and expertness in the processes of mental arithmetic, without the prepar- atory discipline which results from the actual observation of the facts of number and combination, in objects presented to the senses. Such discipline alone, can yield that personal knowledge, and that con- scious grasp of mind, which give clearness and certainty to the action of the intellect in arithmetical operations. Natural objects : animated forms, — ^But it is not merely the con- templation of inanimate objects which the mind, in childhood, requires as a foundation for true perception and exact observation, or as a means of securing prompt and sustained attention. The liberal training of the senses, as a primary step in intellectual cultivation, extends the study of color, form, number, and sound, to the rich do- main of animated nature, in the animal as well as the vegetable king- , dom, and thus brings the vivid sympathy of the young heart with kindred life and motion to the aid of the opening intellect. ' From the pebbhy the shell, the flower, and the leaf the judicious mother and teacher will pass to the insect, the bird, the quadruped, and the flsh ; and as their individualities and diversities are successively enu- merated and dwelt upon, the details of color, form, and number, arrest and fix the volatile attention of the child, and win him to habits of close, minute, and exact observation. Analysis and classification, the two great master powers for the acquisition of knowledge, in whatever direction, are also thus called in to aid the progress of the young observer in his study of nature. 30 EDUCAfkON OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIEJ9. The tendency of the mind to observe^ compare^ examine, and cltusify whatever is submitted to its action, thus early encouraged and stimu- lated, becomes an habitual trait of the mental character, and tellsi with powerful effect, on the intellectual progress of the individual, in the more abstract relations of language and of mathematics. It is a great error to suppose that, because of the intense pleasure which attends the study of natural objects, there is not a profound and rig- orous discipline of mind attending the equally intense intellectual action which accompanies the pleasure. Analytic examination is one and the same process, whether it is directed to the component parts of A plant or of a word. Keen and penetrating attention, close, minute, and thoughtful observation, exhaustive analysis, systematic arrangement, and methodical qlassiOcation, are equally indispensable in the one case as in the other. But in giving precedence to the study of the object, and postponing that of the word, we are obeying the ordination of the Creator, who has furnished the apparatus of the first stages of human development, in the natural objects which first solicit the attention of the child, by the attractions of beauty and pleasure. Pictorial art, — Nor is it only by means of natural objects that the sense of sight contributes to the exercise and discipline of the per- ceptive intellect. Art, too, renders here a rich tribute to the re- sources of education. Models and pictures, and the humblest attempts to produce these, as repetitions of the mental impressions received from nature, give inexpressible delight to the susceptible and imitative spirit of childhood. Their effect is invaluable, in training the perceptive faculties to the keenest, closest, long-sustained action, without the sense of weariness or fatigue; and their inspiring and refreshing influence gives vivacity and force to the whole mind. The clear per- ception, fixed attention, watchful observation, and active exertion, which they both require and cherish, particularly when the child is permitted to attempt to produce imitative efforts of his own, in draw- ing or modelling, meet so successfully the craving of the young spirit for action and endeavor, that they become powerful aids to mental development. The working hand is thus brought to the aid of the active eye, as a test, at the same time, of its correctness of vision, which is proved by the degree of truthfulness in the delinea- tion. This productive method of exercising the perceptive and exec- utive faculties, yields to the child the peculiar delight of having achieved something palpable, as a proof of power, and is, meanwhile, working in his mind the silent effect which is to appear, in due season, in the symmetry and gracefulness of his handwriting, and the neat- ness of whatever he attempts, whether in plan or execution. EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 3X The ear : music, — ^The varied world of Bound, comprising music and speech^ is another wide field of culture to the intelligent mother and the elementary teacher. The extent to which the sense of sight may be cultivated, as regards precision and certainty and truth of action, is indicated in the perfection which is attained by the sculptor and the painter, whose copies of nature are, in some instances, so faithful, and so beautifully perfect, as to confer an immortality of £ime upon their authors. But little notice, comparatively, is taken of the delicate susceptibility of the ear^ in relation to the offices of cul- ture. Yet no sense, not even that of sight itself, is capable of attain- ing to so high perfection by the aids of training and discipline. The innumerable minute distinctions of sound, which the performance of even a single piece of music, by a single performer, often requires ; but, still more, the multitude which the composer of one of the mas- ter-pieces of harmony must be capable of recognizing, discriminating, and combining, with a measured exactness transcending all other efforts of perceptive intellect : these remind us, most impressively, of the extent and value of cultivation, when we recall the fact, that the performer and the composer commenced their artistic training on the common footing of all human beings, a percipient mind, and an organ capable of telegraphing to it the notes of the singing bird, the song of the mother or the nurse, or the artless strains of some juve- nile performer on pipe or flute. Speech, — ^We have yet another proof of the susceptibility of the ear to the influences of cultivation, when " the well trod stage," in the exhibition of a play of the ' myriad-minded' Shakspeare, displays in the voice of the skillful actor, the whole world of human passion, with its ever- varying tones, uttered in the language of poetic inspira- tion, now moulded by the serene influence of heavenly contempla- tion, as when Lorenzo speaks to Jessica, while they sit on the moon- lit bank, of the " smallest orb which she beholds, still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim ; '* now breathing the deep tones of Hamlet, solemnly musing on the mysteries of life, and death, and destiny ; now the hollow mutterings of conscious guilt from Macbeth, while meditating the murder from which he yet recoils ; now the hoarse accents of remorse wrung from the bosom of him whose " offence is Tank " with the blood of " a brother's murder;" now the scarce articu- late horror of " false, fleeting, purjur^d Clarence ; " the maddened scream of mingling grief and rage from the injured mother, Con- stance ; the love raptures of the empassioned Romeo ; the ringing laughter of Mercutio ; or the torture of Othello, as he fluctuates from 32 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTlEa the ecstacies of oyerflowing love and joy, to the curses of hatred, the outbursts of grief^ and the agonies of despair. In all these forms the well trained actor, by the mastery of hia artistic skill, exerts a power over the sympathies of his audience which far transcends the highest achievements of representative art in any other form. The arduous training to which the histrionic artist subjects his voice, in order to produce such effects, shows to what extent the cultivation of the ear may be carried. It is by the indications of this faithful, prompting monitor, that he guides every step of his vocal efforts, till he attains to those consummate effects of genius which, in some instances, have conferred on the individual a fame coextensive with the civilized world. Yet he who is, perhaps, thus renowned, commenced his early efforts, with the usual stumb- ling utterance of a school-boy. Enunciation, — Passing from the higher sphere of music and poe- try, in their influence on the cultivation of the intellect, through the medium of sense, we come to one of the most important stages of education, in the discipline of the voice for the useful purposes of speech, as dependent on accuracy of ear, — the only reliable guide to correct results: The unconscious freedom with which we utter thoughts in our native tongue, leaves all persons who are not advan- tageously trained by precept or example, exposed to the evils of incor- rect habit, in utterance. The extensive prevalence, also^ of corrupted usage, in the negligent practice of general society, increases the liabil- ity to error in the style of the individual. There was wisdom in the Roman maxim, that .the nurses of children ought to be persons of correct habit, in enunciation. The influence of early example, is the most binding rule of speech, as the bafSed and disappointed teacher, after all his endeavors, is often made to feel. One early begun and long continued daily practice, in primary training, should consist in the careful, correct, and distinct articula- tion of the component elements of speech, as accomplished in our own language. These should, at first, be practiced with reference to the exact sound of every letter of the alphabet, singly and separately ; afterwards they should be enunciated in the groups which constitute syllables, on a graduated progressive scale of difiiculty, till every vari- ety of combination can be uttered with perfect distinctness and per- fect fluency ; finally, the pronunciation of words should be practiced in a similar manner, till the style of the young learner is freed from all corrupt and local mannerism, and he is prepared to take his place among the cultivated in speech as well as thought, and, by his per- sonal mannei^of expression, to evince the style of educated habit as preferable to that of vulgar negligence. EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES 33 Elocution, — ^In the secondary and in the more advanced stages of education, the discipline of the ear should be extended, so as to eni- brace all the refining and highly intellectual influences of music and poetry, as combined in elocution. Intellect, feeling, and imagination, are all inseparably united in the appropriate expression of sentiment, as embodied in the language of oratory and poetry ; and their finest effects in utterance depend on a nice susceptibility of ear, which culture only can secure to full extent. Music and elocution, the most humanizing of all arts, prescribe the apparatus and the forms of training to which the ear should be sub^ jected, through the whole course of education. In the analysis and the discrimination which vocal discipline demands, in the recognition which it secures of the almost infinitely diversified and ever varying character of tones, in their expression of intelligence or of emotion, there is an admirable discipline of intellect implied, which, though less for- mally displayed than in other modes of exercise, is not, on that account, the less effectual. Of the high moral value of the suscepti- bility which such training tends to cherish, it is not now the appro- priate time to speak. We may advert to it under a subsequent head. The subject of healthful physical training is not now under con- sideration ; yet sensation, and consequent perception, are dependent on the condition of the organs of sense, and therefore of the wholie corporeal frame, which must be in a healthy condition to secure the natural and true action of nerve and brain, — the apparatus of percep- tive action in the intellect. The attentive and efficient cultivation of health should be regarded, not merely as a condition of intellectuffl life, but as the first step in the formation of intellectual character. The clear eye and the quick ear of health are highly intellectual in their tendencies, and are for ever detecting and offering material for the intellect to examine or explore. The dull organs of a morbid frame, on the contrary, are too torpid to respond to the awakening touch or beckoning invitation of nature, and leave the clouded intel" lect to sleep or to dream. PROGRESSIVE CHARACTER OF THE PROPER DISCIPLINE OF THE PER- CEPTIVE FACULTIES. The varied exercises of eye and ear, as organs of sentient mind, should always, under the guiding management of the teacher, advance in intellectual character from stage to stage, so as to secure the benefits of a progressive discipline, commencing, indeed, at the threshold of sense, but ever tending more and more inward, till they become nearly inseparable from the action and character of pure intellect. They thus render the keen eye and the quick ear prompters to a4 BINJOATION OF THK PIftCIPIIYB FACULTTBB. clear peroeption, fixed attention, penetrating obeerration, careful com- parison, and diflcriminating judgment, and so conduct to consummate -intelligence. The teacher who works in intelligent codperation with the consti- lotion of the beings whose character it is his office to mould, is con- tent to labor patiently in the field of sefuationj as, at first, forming the sole ground on which he can rationally meet the dawning mind, with the hope to exert a genial and effectual influence on its development He dwells long, accordingly, on the prominent outward characteris- tics of objects, as most accessible to the unpracticed faculties of infancy, as best adapted to elicit their activity, and tempt them forth to more and more energetic effort. He furnishes, with no sparing hand, the opportunities of intuition, in the abundance and variety of the objects which he presents to the senses. He selects these, however, with such judgment and skill that the young mind shall be incapable of regarding them with a mere vacant aspection or listless intuition, but, on the contrary, shall be made to fee) that there is within them a soliciting power, a magnetic attraction, to which its own nature responds, and by which it is led on, from stage to stage, till it finds Itself in possession of the mental treasures of clear perception and definite knowledge. VOLUNTARY EXERCISE OP THE PERCEPTIVE PACULTIE8, A CONDITION OP INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. Attention as a voluntary act, — The teacher who recognizes the law of intellectual growth, is aware that, in adopting measures to aid the progressive unfolding of the perceptive faculties, he may trust largely to the niind^s own instinctive and spontaneous tendencies to action, if only due provision is made for mental activity, by supplying the objects of sense which naturally invite and stimulate perception. But regarding the mind as a voluntary and self-directing agent, he knows that unless its own efficient cooperation is secured in the pro- cesses on which its energies are exerted, its activity will be ever tending to subside, or to degenerate into mechanical and unmeaning routine. The result, he is aware, must, in such circumstances, be a morbid intellectual inertness of habit, or a deceptive show of forced organic action, instead of the movements of mental life. His great endeavor, therefore, will be to succeed in evoking Attention, — that power of the mind which brings into vigorous and efficient activity the percipi- ent intellect, — that power which, by its own innate force, impels and sustains perception, in whatever direction it is called to act, or in what- ever process it is employed. The customary definition of this power, or faculty, as voluntary per- EDUCATION OF THE PEECSFTIVE FACULTIB& 35 ceptioUy suggests to the educator his true office in cultivatmg and deyeloping it It implies that he do longer restricts his efforts to presenting such objects as solicit and secure the mind's notice, by the law of natural instinct, but that, addressing himself to the principle of volition, he calls it forth, as a moving force, impelling the mental machinery from within, and enabling it to arrive at knowledge, by it$ own action. The true teacher never commits the error of resorting to the exercise of his own will, instead of that of his pupil, as the pro- pelling power. He is aware that his success, as an educator, is to be measured, not by the force with which he can bring his own power of compulsion to bear on the faculties of his pupils, but by the intens- ity with which he can bring their mental energies into voluntary play, in processes which leave a residuum of living force, as a result on mental character. He knows well that no degree of exertion can command attention, by a mere act of will, at the moment ; that, by the law of the mental constitution, a train of circumstances must bo laid before the desired result can be ensured ; that an exercise of will is not, in the natural analogies of mental action, a merely arbitrary act of self-determination ; but that, on the contrary, will is solicited by desire ; a feeling or affection of the mind being the natural and necessary preliminary to volition ; and that the intelligent guide of the intellectual powers must, therefore, appeal to feeling, as the natu- ral and reliable prompter of the will. In other words, the educa- tional process, rightly conducted, is so contrived as to create a desire to arrive at the given result, and proceeds upon that security for the action of will in determining the direction of the mind, and sustain- ing the exertion of its powers. Trained under such influences, a disciplined attention is the sure fruit of culture ; and power of attention is not unjustly termed the key which unlocks all the gates of knowledge, and secures an entrance to its innermost secrets of intelligence. Attention, as a power or mode of intellectual action, regarded in connection with the cultivation of the perceptive faculties, requires the application of the various expedients by which it may be rendered prompt, earnest, close, and continuous, as the exigencies of subjects and of the mind may demand. Promptness of attention, — Such results imply that the educator,, as a skillful gyinnasiarch in the arena of mind, trains it through every variety of evolution by which it may be rendered quick in move- ment, ever ready for instantaneous action, so as to secure that pliancy and versatility by which it can at once direct itself to its object, or relinquish one object or train of thought for another, when 36 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. the moment for change has arrived, and pursue the object of its aim with whatever velocity of motion may be requisite to reach it, in due season. Speed and despatch, however, not haste and hurry, should be the ends at which the teacher aims in all drilling processes. A wakeful and lively attention, ever on the alert for action, implies sound and healthful and invigorating training. A harassed and exhausted mind, dragged or driven along the path of exercise too arduous, or too long continued, can never yield the results of genuine discipline. With very young pupils, especially, the obvious indication of nature is, make free use of striking and attractive objects, illustrations, and remarks. One object at a time ; words few and well chosen ; no lag- ging or drawling on the part of either pupil or teacher, yet no hurry, no impatience, no impetuosity ; proceeding smoothly and swiftly, but quietly and gently in all movements ; yet sometimes, for the purpose of arresting attention, adopting the grateful surprise of a sudden change, briskly executed : — these are the characteristics of skillful and genial training, such as quickens the life power of intellect. Earnestness of attention, — ^The power of earnest attention is an- other trait of mental habit to which the successful teacher directs his endeavors, as an invaluable attainment to be secured, through his agency, by his pupils. To this end, he avoids carefully all exercises not interesting or inviting to the young mind. Objects^ pictures^ pen- etrating questions, vigorous exertion, in varied forms, for mind and body, — strenuous endeavor called forth, at intervals, to cope with difficulties, interesting facts stated, or stories told, — the wonders of nature and of art exhibited, interesting conversation maintained, in which the pupils interchange thoughts with the teacher, word-pic- tures of peculiar power and beauty, selected from the poets, early attempts at drawing, exercises in planning and building, tangible illus- trations in architecture, masonry, carpentry, or joiner- work, in juve- nile style, for hours of recreation, the analysis of plants, the tracing of the anatomy of animal forms, in specimens of insect organization, in the osseous construction of birds, fishes, reptiles, &c. ; all lessons made, as far as practicable, matter of active work, rather than merely passive attention ; the ceaseless use of the slate, the pencil, and the blackboard, in recording, repeating, and illustrating every thing which admits of such forms of expression ; these, and every other resort which ingenuity can invent, are all required in the exigencies of actual teaching. Earnest attention and strenuous application, on the part of pupils, are the natural result and unfailing reward of the teacher's own facil- ity and skill in devising and executing inspiring models of whatever EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 37 he would have his pupils execute. The eflScacy of his own ear, eye, and hand, secured by his own self- culture, is the only guaranty of his success, as a faithful trainer of the perceptive faculties. The gen- eral introduction of tnusic and drawing, now in progress in all well- taught schools, together with the increasing attention given to ele- mentary lessons in botany and mineralogy, is opening a highly ben- eficial course of discipline for the young mind, in whatever concerns the power of earnest and effective attention, as an attribute of intel- lectual character. Closeness of attention, — ^The thorough discipline of attention, how- ever, as the directing force of the perceptive faculties, implies that it is not only rendered prompt and earnest in action, but close and minute in its application. A faithful analysis is conditioned, in all depart- ments of study, on a clear and distinct perception of every particular. Nothing must be suffered to escape notice. No analysis can be com- plete that is not exhaustive, to the extent of its object. Close and minute inspection is indispensable for the exact observation of many of the most instructive and the most beautiful of the details of nature, in the forms of animal and vegetable life, — for the successful watching of the processes of chemistry, — for forming exact estimations of quan- tity and number, — for tracing the diversities of even inanimate form, the delicate gradations of color, the minutest difference of sound and form, in the details of language, together with all the nicer distinctions, and discriminations of thought, when embodied in words, for the pur- poses of communication. To secure these results, we are again directed to the early and effec- tual training of the perceptive faculties on the objects of nature, as the first step in the true education of the mind. The minutest point of form in t^e structure of leaf or blossom, the child traces with delight ; and this native tendency of mental action, extended in its range of objects, and confirmed by the law of habit, becomes not only a source of intellectual enjoyment, but of conscious power and ultimate success, in all investigations, not merely of nature and external objects, but, by the inevitable law of analogy, in every department of research on which the intellect is competent to enter. The power of close atten- tion, sharpened by judicious early training of the perceptive faculties, attains in due season, to consummate certainty and success in those processes of minute analysis which are, in many instances, the crown- ing glories of science. No contrast can be more striking than that exhibited in the two cases of neglect and culture, in this relation of mental action. On the one hand, we have the loose, superficial, imperfect attention, which gg EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES glides listlessly over the surface of things, without note, and conse- quently without knowledge ; on the other we see an acute, keen, pene- trating, searching inspection, which nothing escapes, — a mind whose knowledge is exact and complete, whose information is the result of narrowly examined and well ascertained particulars. The intelligent teacher, knowing that the keenest exercises of dis- criminating judgment are, by the law of mental constitution and habit, not unfrequently dependent on the close examination of details, on the power of tracing and detecting the minutest shades of difference in objects and their component parts, leads his pupils, by the closeness of his questioning, to follow the minutest ramifications of diversity, amid apparent similarity, in the objects which ho uses as instruments for sharpening their perceptions to the keenest inspection of every feature which is accessible to the discernment of sense. Beyond this point he passes to the use of the microscope, one of the most valuable imple- ments ever devised as an aid to the processes of human culture. A cheap instrument of this description, in the hands of an attentive teacher, has a power which no degree of mental inertia can resist It has been known to convert, in a few days, a whole school of uncultivated, thoughtless, turbulent children into an attentive, thoughtful, inquiring, docile, and orderly company of Jittle students of nature. A few minutes occupied daily in observing and tracing the forms of objects, in detail, is, in addition to its ultimate effects on mental habit, of the greatest service in the humble relations of alphabetic teaching. A ground work is thus laid for the accurate recognition of the elements of form combined in the visible shapes of printed and written characters, and a surer and more rapid, because a more intel- ligent, progress secured, as regards the accuracy of the eye in recog- nizing, or of the hand in repeating the lines, angles, and curves, which constitute the complex forms of letters. Accustomed to the close and minute analysis of form on visible objects of different sorts, the child, if permitted to treat his alphabetic characters in a similar way, takes delight in detecting and naming their constituent parts ; and, particu- larly, when he is' permitted to try to delineate them for himself, and thus, as it were, bring them under a kind of ideal subjection to hid power. The discipline of particular observation and searching attention, «arly secured, becomes, in due season, a complete guaranty for the coiTCct and successful performance of the various gradations of math- ematical problems in which a well trained and exact attention is required, whether for the relations of form or those of numbers ; and throughout the successive stages of education, in all its departments; EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 39 The well trained mind becomes ultimately like the thoroughly ma^ netized instrument, which leaves no stray particles of the steel-filings scattered abroad, but agglomerates them every one to itself; with a certainty which renders the act no unfitting analogy for illustrating the universal law of gravitation. Tenacity of attention, — ^Having used his best endeavors to render the faculty of attention prompt, earnest, and close, in its action, as the guide of the perceptive faculties, the teacher has yet another character to stamp upon it He would have it not only quick and vivid, and searching, but tenacious and permtent. From an element volatile, fluctuating, and superficial, in its first manifestations, he would have it become, at length, a power fixed, and steadfast, and unfailing. Patiently training it through its incipient stage of short, feeble flights, he inures it to lengthened excursions and sustained exertions, such as all valuable mental attainments demand. Here, again. Nature comes to his aid, furnishing him liberally not only with numerous instru- ments of discipline in her manifold forms, as objects, individually, attractive and interesting, but with those complexities of shape, and color, and number, those organic relations, and organic contrivances, those compound bodies, those intricate combinations of elements and processes, which all require not only an earnest and close, but a long- sustained, unflagging attention, as the only condition of faithful and exact observation and accurate knowledge. The intelligent teacher watches carefully the progressive develop- ment of his pupiFs power of attention, and exercises it according to the increasing force and firmness of its grasp, so as to secure a per- petually growing power of retention, through all the successive exer- cises which he contrives for its discipline, on natural and artificial forms, their wnoxx^ combinations, numbers, powers, andchxiracteristics^^ of whatever denomination in the vocabularies of science and art. Regarding attention as the master power in the grasp of the percep- tive faculties, he values, most of all, its strength and retentiveness, its ability to maintain an unbroken sequence of activity, such as not un- frequently demands the incitement of the most earnest desire to arrive at the wished for result, and produce, in turn, the most resolute deter* mination of the will to persevere in action till the result is mastered. Here, again, the teacher finds his best resort in the objects and pro- cesses of nature; unwearied attention is in no way so eflectually secured, without uadue or fatiguing exertion, as in analyzing and in- specting the various parts oi plants, or the anatomical mechanism of animal forms, and, more particularly, of insects. While no humane or enlightened teacher would ever propose even one half hour of 40 EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. unbroken attention, on the part of very young pupils, twice that time may safely and advantageously pass in the suggestive qu^tions of the teacher, and the ready answers of the pupils, during the examination of a single specimen of the productions of nature. In such circum- stances, instruction takes its best form, — that of interesting eanversa- turn ; and time flies only too fast for both parties in the exercise. Another sustained effort of attention may, by a judicious change in the form of mental action, be as easily secured by permitting the pupil to make such attempt as he can at delineating^ in detail, the parts of the object which he has been contemplating ; still another may be obtained by permitting him to describe in words^ and at full length, what he has observed ; and even the giant Despair of " com- . position*' may be conquered by allowing the pupil to write his descrip- tion. Such processes prepare the young student in due season, for those arduous and unflagging exertions of attention by which he ultimately succeeds in solving lengthened and complicated problems in mathe^ matics, disentangling long and inverted sentences by tracing the gram- matical relations of their parts, and following, with patient assiduity, every step in extended and abstruse processes of reasoning on subjects more purely mental in their character. The teacher who would merit the rank of an edueJitor, and who would render all his processes of instruction not merely didactic but disciplinary, can never be too careful to accustom himself to survey the whole field of human culture in its Completeness ; to keep ever before his own mind the strict unity of the principle of intelligence, the analogy and cotendency of its various modes of action, and the identity of their results in the enlarging and quickening of its powers, and the strengthening of its grasp, on whatever subject it may be called to fasten. Philosophical writers, of high repute, have, sometimes, in their zealous advocacy of the value of their special studies, as instru- ments of mental discipline, been led greatly to underrate the disci- plinary influence of all intellectual training connected with the observ- ation and study of nature. They seem to have overlooked the fact that quick, acute, penetrating, close, persevering attention is one and the same priceless attainment, whether exhibited in the examination of an external object or in the investigation of the most abstruse of subjects that can be submitted to the action of human intellect The experienced and observing teacher knows well that his students who excel in the exercises prescribed in the departments of logic and metaphysics are those whose faculties have been most thoroughly disciplined in the processes of analysis, comparison, and classification. EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 4X of induction and deduction, applied to the study of natural objects, under the guidance of mathematical and physical science. The materials on which the mind works in each of these great groups of subjects are undoubtedly wholly different ; but its action is virtually the same in both — attention leading to discernment, discernment to fact or to truth. ^ The student who is thus trained in the true unity of his intellect- ual being, issues from the preparatory sphere of education well pre- pared to meet the exigences of actual life, whether these present themselves in the form of intelligent and prompt activity, or in that of rigid investigation and profound research. NATURAL CONNECTION OF THE FBRCEPTIYB AND THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES. To enable his pupils to extend the exercise of attention into that of continued observation^ is the great aim of the teacher, who works in- telligently on the material of mind, with a view to elicit power of thought. As far as the discipline of the perceptive faculties extends, the end of culture is to create an observing mind ; from which, in the beautifully perfect arrangements of the great Author of intelligence, spring, in succession, a reasoning and a reflecting mind. The latter, however, can never be obtained without due obedience to the Creator's law of succession, in the development of intellect. The materials of reason and reflection lie, to a great extent, though not exclusively, in the field of observation ; and, a regard to the law of natural and healthy development, therefore, induces the teacher to look carefully to the first steps of his procedure in the processes of cultivation. Having used his best endeavors to vivify and invigorate the power of attention, by all appropriate means and appliances, he proceeds to the use of every gonial method of confirming the tendency of the mind to maintain that faculty in habitual action ; to stamp on the intellect, as a characteristic trait, an inquisitive and appropriating spirit, which examines and searches into all things within its sphere, aggregates their riches to itself, and ever comes home laden with results for the exercise of powers and faculties yet greater than itself; and, to which it is ordained to minister. It is thus that the mind becomes the delighted and conscious agent in its own advancement PROCESSES BT WHICH THE HABIT OF OBSERVATION IS SECURED. The frequent solicitation of attention, by the presentation of attract- ive objects, would, of itself, as we see in Nature's unaided training of the savage, provoke a tendency to observe and to inquire. But, the action of the intelligent teacher, in aid of Nature, and in obedience to her dictation, is founded on a law of moral certainty, derived from the study of the laws of mental action. Understanding and relying \ 4^ SDUOATION OP THE PEECKFTIVB FACI7LTIB& on ihe susceptibility of ihe mind to the influence of the objects by which it is surrounded, and the perfect adaptation of these objects to that end ; and, aided, no less effectually, by that inward thirst for knowledge, that burning desire to observe^ and understand, which actu- ates the young mind itself the enlightened teacher knows he has but to attract attention to the object which he wishes to employ as a ma- terial in the fabric of knowledge. Attention gained, secures percep- turn ; if the object is properly selected, and skillfully handled. The volatility of attention in the immature mind, which, if unguarded, tends to mental dissipation and superficial observation, the teacher counteracts by genial measures, adapted to arrest and fix this subtle element of mental power, and carry it successfully forward, from step to step in observation, till the end in view in investigation is attained. The successive steps of the mind^s progress, under the guidance of a skillful instructor, in endeavoring to arrive at the result of true per- ception, exact observation, and complete knowledge, are suggestively indicated in the process of investigating the structure of any visible object, and naturally present themselves in the following order: exavn- inatum, analysis, inspection; aided by interrogation, direction, and information, and extended successively to the more complex processes of comparison and classification^ Examination, as a Process in Intellectual TraTning, — In the absence of the prompting and directing power of genial culture, it is true, perhaps, that most of our race are permitted to fill the measure of their days withput one definite or quickening thought of the objects by which they are surrounded for a life-time. The peasant boy, who, of all human beings, is the most favorably situated for the contempla- tion and intelligent study of nature, seldom experiences the friendly aid of a suggestive question, that might lead him to appreciate the elements of intellectual wealth, in which the field of his daily labor abounds. Education has given him the ability to compute his wages, to read, or to sign a receipt ; and, thus to meet the humble demands of his animal subsistence. It may even have afforded him some formal instruction in grammar or geography. But, it has not even hinted to him that, in " herb, tree, firuit, flower, glistering with dew," there are wonders of skill, and beauty, and power, fitted to fill his soul with delight, and to exalt him to a higher intelligence ; that, in the bud, as it opens in spring, in the expanded blossom of summer, in the tinted leaf of autumn, in the shell which he picks up from the sand of the brook, in the very pebble which he " turns with his share, and treads upon," there are offered to his mind whole volumes of the richest knowledge, which the study of a life-time cannot exhaust. EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 4^ An eloquent American writer, speaking of the advancement of edu- cation, says : " The time may come when the teacher will take his pupil by the hand, and lead him by the running streams, and teach him all the principles of Science, as she comes from her Maker." The teacher is here rightfully represented as fulfilling, in his humble sphere of duty, the highest oflSces of philanthropy and of religion. Such is the teacher's noble and beneficent function, in favoring circumstances ; yet, not less when, yielding to the exigencies of life, he is confined within the walls of his school- room, but brings in Nature's apparatus from without, to give life, and meaning, and efficacy to his instruc- tions, and win the young mind to the earnest and devoted study of the works of the Creator. Intellectual Effects Resulting from the Examination of Objects, — Tlie zealous teacher, working with such light shed upon his labors, knows that, in presenting a product of Nature to the eye, he is pre- senting a germ of thought to the mind, which, under his skillful man- agement, shall duly unfold, in leaf, and blossom, and ultimate fruit» He knows that, in the absence of a guiding suggestion, his young pupil may have looked a thousand times on that leaf, as a thing which did not cobcern him; on the shell, as only something queer; on the pebble, as an unintelligible intruder, perhaps, on his personal comfort ; on the flower, as something pretty, that his sisters are fond of; on the fruit, as a sufficiently satisfactory morsel for his palate ; and, that thus, in the great universal hall of learning, stored with library and apparatus, the orphaned mind may have sauntered away the pre- cious hours of early life, without having been induced to study a single lesson, or engage in a single exercise. All this the teacher is well aware of ; but, he knows, too, the hidden life and power that lie wrapped up in the little object with which, as a specimen from Nature's cabinet, he proceeds to magnetize the sentient intellects before him. He knows that, as surely as these susceptible beings are brought near enough to come within the range of action, they fall under the spell of its power, are charmed to rapt attention, and carried on, in wondering and delighted observation, till they are finally arrested by the gratefiil surprise of conscious knowledge, and advanced intelligence. Is it a plant which forms the subject of the lesson he would give ? He has but, by a striking question, to break the crust of habituation, which has blunted the perception of his pupils, and hinders their mental vision. He has but to ask them to describe its parts, in detail, as he holds it up before them, and he has gained the grand prelimi- nary condition of effective perception, — attentive examination. As I 44 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES the description extends its ramifications, the weed, which had been a thousand times trodden under foot, without a thought of its nature or construction, becomes an eloquent expositor of Creative mechanism and life ; its parts become organs and channels of vitality, — a won- drous laboratory of chemical elements and action; the individual object becomes a member of a family, each of whom has his life and his history, his birth, growth, maturity, and decay ; leaving, as the moral of his story, the parting suggestive question, riveted in the wondering mind, " Am I not wonderfully made ? " One such result, — and the more common the object which secures it the better, — one such result is suflScient to ensure a repetition of itself, in a thousand other instances. The ice of indifference is broken ; and the observer may now see clearly, through the transparant water, the many-formed beautiful pebbles on the sandy bed of the stream. The time and trouble of examination, it is now found, are amply repaid in the conscious pleasure of intelligent observation ; and, they are no longer begrudged. The mind has now become desirous to observe, examine, and explore. It has already set out on a career which, were all educators intelligent agents, would be ceaseless to all to whose advancement it is their part to minister. Example of a Successful Teacher, — A most striking exemplification, in this respect, of successful instruction, was often exhibited in the devoted labors of the late Josiah Holbrook, who, although the very extent of some of his plans for the advancement of popular education may have rendered their execution difficult for the endeavors of an individual, yet was uniformly successful in his attempts to introduce the study of natural objects, as a part of early education in all schools. Trusting to the power of attraction and development latent within a stone, picked up by the wayside, he would enter a school, with no other apparatus of instruction provided ; and, holding up the familiar object, would succeed, by means of a few simple but skillfully-put questions, in creating an earnest desire in his young audience to be permitted to look more closely at the object He would then hand it to them, and have it passed from one to another. Having thus secured the preliminary advantage of earnest attention^ his next step would be, by a few more brief questions, to lead his little class to a close and careful examination of the specimen submitted to their notice ; and, to their surprise and delight, to enable them to see that the bit of granite in their hands, — although but one stone to the eye, at first sight, — actually contained portions of three different kinds of rock. He would then give his pupils an unpretending but thor- oughly effective exercise in analysis, by inducing them to point out EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 45 distinctly each component element, apart, and to describe, at tho moment of doing so, its points of difference from the others, by which the eye might recognize and the mind distinguish it. Another stage, in the well-planned lessons of this true teacher, would lead to a yet closer inspection of the component elements in the object of observation, by the presentation of separate specimens of each, in comparison with the smaller portions of them perceptible in the stone. The transparency of the mica, its laminated form, its beauty to the eye, would all come up in turn, for due notice and remark ; nor would its peculiar adaptation to several of the uses and conveniences of life be overlooked. The quartz element, with its beau- tiful crystalline aspect and forms, its value as a gem, its wide diffusion in the granular condition, its presence and its effects in the composi- tion of rocks and soils, — all briefly exemplified and enumerated, — would form a copious subject of instruction and delight. The feld- spar, too, with its creamy tint and block-like configuration, and its valuable uses in the hands of the potter and the dentist, would come in for its share of delighted attention and studious observation. Here was the true office of instruction faithfully exemplified. Here was genuine mental activity, on the part of the pupil ; and, here were its natural effects, — vigorous, healthy expansion and development, together with the pure, natural, and salutary pleasure of intellectual exercise, — more dear to the child than even his favorite play. Here, too, were effectually secured the moral influences of culture, docility, order, regularity, voluntary attention and application, gratitude to the instructor for personal favor and benefit consciously received, an earn- est desire implanted for the true and enduring pleasures which spring from knowledge, and the first steps taken in the life-long pursuit of science. The teacher, having put himself into a true living relation to the mental constitution of his pupils, could, without delaying for formal calls to order or attention, proceed, at once, to the benign office of his vocation, as the guide of the young mind. By a wise prevent- ive method, — not by authority, rule, or penalty, — he secured the devoted attention and good order of his pupils, and, not less, their own happiness, their sympathy with him, at the moment, and their habitual reverence for him, as the living source of knowledge. After one lesson, such as has been described, the substantial and durable effect resulting from it was usually perceptible in the fact that, on the dismission of the school, the juvenile members of Mr. Hol- brook's audience would be found resorting to whatever place they thought likely to furnish them with specimens such as he had exhib- ited in his lesson. This was almost universally the case when tho 46 |»>UCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. lessor happened to be given in a rural region, where objects of the kind in question were easily obtained. But, not less zeal for collect- ing specimens for juvenile cabinets, would sometimes be manifested in the more confined sphere of city life, an instance of which it would be difficult for the writer to forget. An eager group of little collectors were scrambling for specimens around the temporary shed of the stone-masons occupied in the erec- tion of a public building. They were busily replenishing their pock- ets with such pieces as struck their fancy, and stopping now and then to compare specimens, or each to examine his own more closely. Drawing near to the juvenile company of geologists, as their heads were clubbed together in earnest inspection of a specimen, the observer heard one exclaim, " Well, I do not think it is the right kind. For, you know, Mr. Holbrook said the way to spell granite was not g-r-a-n-i't-e^ but * mica^ quartz^ And feldspar,^ Now, there is not a bit of mica in any of these stones." The observer happened to know of Mr. Holbrook's visits to the school to which the boys belonged ; and, as he saw that the little students had just found their way to the exact spot in investigation where Mr. H. would be glad to meet them, so as, by means of a little closer analysis, to enable them to detect the difference between granite and " sienite," he relieved their anxiety by telling them that they had better not throw away the pieces they had picked up, but carry them to the school-room, next morning, and ask Mr. Holbrook to tell them why there was no mica in their specimens, and what those black specks were. One of the little explorers returned to his home, on the following day, to tell, with a face all radiant with intelligence, about the quarries of Syene, in Egypt, the quarries of Quincy, and those of the " Granite " State, and even to go into some details, in which neither of his parents was sufficiently versed in science to follow him satisfactorily. Analysis, in its Connection with the Discipline of the Perceptive Faculties. — An eminent writer has truly said that a dwarf, behind his steam-engine, may remove mountains. Analysis is the correspondent power of the intellect It is the grand instrument in all the opera- tions of the perceptive faculties. It is observation working scientifi- cally ; and, of all the implements of science, it is the keenest in its edge, the truest in its action, and the surest in the results which it attains. It is the key to knowledge, in all departments of intelligence ; and, perfection in its processes is the crown of glory on the head of him who stands foremost in the field of scientific research. Education, as the power which trains and forms the mental habits, has no higher EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPITVE FACULTIE& 4f boon which it can confer, as the result of years of practice and discipline. Valuable, however, as this process is, education, in the history of the past, could lay but slight claims to the merit of having formed the mental habits which it implies ; since the means and opportunities of analytic intellection were withheld or neglected, to a veiy great extent, in consequence of the omission to provide the requisite objects and exercises for the discipline of the perceptive faculties. Education, while it consisted chiefly in arbitrary forms of exercise on abstract principles, connected with formulas in language and in number, drawn from the sciences of grammar and arithmetic, precluded the exercise of perception, by causing the learner to assume, instead of investiga- ting, the primary facts of language and of number. At the present day, we obey the law of inductive procedure, and substitute personal observation and distinct perception for wide assumption and broad assertion. This is true of, at least, the modes and methods of all who profess to teach philosophically, as not mere instructoi^, but educators of the mind. Still, there remains much to be done with reference to the early direction and training of the intellectual faculties, so as to ensure the selection and presentation of the proper materials on which the intellect should be exercised in the first stages of its course of discipline. Analysis, as a process of observant mind, implies the presence of objects which, by its solvent power, it is to reduce to component ele- ments ; and, as the real object, the fact, the actual relation, precede, in the order of nature and development, the ideal image, the intellec- tual abstraction, the logical deduction, early education in its primary operations, should conform to this law of order and of progress, and, in prescribing its first forms of exercise and discipline, should obviously draw its materials from the external universe of palpable realities, and not from the internal world of pure thought, in which the young mind possesses so little conscious power. Nor is it well for the mind that the habit of analytical observation and study, so indispensable to its successful action, in all forms of acquisitive exercise, should be de- ferred to the later stages of intellectual culture. Facility in analysis, acquired by practice on the accessible forms and relations of external objects, is easily transferred, by analogy, to the arithmetical exercise of resolving complicated numbers into their simpler constituent groups ; or, the grammatical one of reducing a perplexing period to its primary elements, and these, in turn, to their component parts. Progress in mathematical science and linguistic study, would be much surer and '.iiore rapid, if, instead of being demanded of the 48 BDUCATION OF THE PERCKPTIVE FACULTIB& earlier stages of mental progress, it were postponed to a period subse? quent to that of analytical exercise, practised, for years, on objects perceptible to the senses. Analysis, as the systematic process of examination, is one and the same thing, in whatever direction it is applied ; its power as an instru- ment of discipline, is as fully felt in investigating the structure of a plant as that of a sentence ; and, the intelligent teacher, while super- intending such a process, will feel the same weight of obligation rest- ing on him in the one case as in the other. He will, accordingly, be watchful over the manner in which the process is conducted, that it be not superficial, or hasty, or partial, but thorough-going, deliberate, and exhaustive, as far as it ought to extend ; and. that it be furnished with faithful expression, or record, at every step of its progress. It is thus only that the indispensable broad line of distinction can be drawn, which gives certainty to knowledge, by separating what has been examined from what has not been, and measures what is known by what has been aone. Inspection, as a Disciplinary Process for the Perceptive Faculties, — ^When analysis has faithfully performed its peculiar task, and singled out for observation the very last component element in the object of investigation, there remains yet, to the attentive teacher, another stage of perceptive progress to be accomplished by his pupil, under the suggestive- direction of a mind which has alrea'dy traveled the path of knowledge. The searching inspection of the individual elements which compose a complex whole, — an inspection so minute, that each element may be described and defined in its distinctive unity of constitution and character, and, in the clearly traced relation which it bears to the whole, as well as in each of its own chief characteris- tics, or prominent features, — ^becomes, perhaps, in turn, an element in some wide-sweeping induction, for purposes of comparison and classification. Elementary botany, — that which a young child is perfectly compe- tent to study, and which requires but the seeing eye and the attentive mind, to examine and describe the different parts of a plant, or even a root, a stem, a bud, or a leaf, — abounds in the best of materials for exercise in close and minute examination of details. To renJer this process a tendency and a habit of his pupil's mind, is here the oflSce of the educator. Yet, this is but one of the numerous resources of nature on which he may draw for the cultivation of the highest traits of intellectual skill and expertness, as attributes of the young minds, which it is his business to train to the highest pitch of mental power to which he can raise them. • EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 49 In the examination of a plant, for example, be does not limit the attention of his pupils to the mere analysis of the whole into its parts. Every part, separately, he makes an object of distinct inspection and investigation, in every light in which observation or science enables him to hold it np. No feature of individual character is suffered to escape notice, — ^no detail, how minute soever it may be, fti which it differs from, or resembles, a correspondent point of form or function, in another specimen of kindred character. In lessons on animal life, — to use another example, — the juvenile student, under the charge of the watchful teacher, is directed to observe ihe fact, which minute inspection discloses, that, in one instance, where he would naturally, at first glance, think that he has seen two feet ; he will actually discover, on closer inspection, two hands ; that, in observing the figure of the chimpanzee, he has been contemplating neither biped nor quadruped, but a quadrumanous (four-handed) ani- mal ; and, that this distinction is founded chiefly on the careful exam- ination of the member which he had been accustomed to call a toe^ but which is, in reality, a thumb, designed to aid in the actions of grasp- ing and climbing, which are so important to the animal's mode of life. The close inspection of one member thus becomes, for the time,-tl3e turning point on which the young student depends for the recognition of a grand distinction in nature, and for the true understanding and proper appreciation of the scientific term in which this distinction is recorded. Interrogation, as an Instrument of Intellectual Discipline. — In the language of general writers on subjects connected with the experi- mental and tentative processes of science, man is said to interrogate nature. The figure is a most suggestive one to the teacher, with reference to his business and duties. It presents man in his appropri- ate attitude of an attentive and docile child of Nature, inquiring trust- fully of her concerning the causes which lie too deep for mere intui- tion, but which her maternal spirit is ever ready to reveal to earnest desire and faithful endeavor. The human parent and the teacher stand, to the young mind, in the same oracular relation, as expound- ers and interpreters of the great volume of creation. But, how sel- dom is the inquiring spirit of childhood encouraged to avail itself of its lawful provision for the furnishing of that knowledge which it con- sciously craves, as the sustenance of its life ! How seldom does the teacher feel the fiill force of the obligation which the inquisitive habits of childhood lay upon him, to encourage the spirit of curiosity which prompts the many questions of the child ! How seldom does he feel that his business is to incite, and stimulate, and prompt, and enliven, ID 1^0 BDUCATION OF THE PBROSFnTB FAOULTIBS. in every way possible to him, tbis primary instinct, which impels the mind toward the goal of knowledge ! How seldom does he enter into the spirit of the wise ifuggestion of the poet ; and, even when in the very act of feeding the intellectual appetite, so contrive as '* by giving" to '* make it ask I'' Book Questions. — The teacher is not usually so remiss in regard to the importance of interrogation, as a stimulus to intelligence, so far as concerns his own resort to tiiat process. Far from it I He knows its value, as a pointer or guide-post, to definite results. Nor are there wanting instructors so reliant on interrogatory forms, and so distrnst- liil of their own power to devise them, that they conduct the whole business of a lesson, following literally the numerous questions printed on the page of the text-book. Such questions, it is true, are not to be despised and rejected in the wholesale style in which they are aometimes disposed of by the young and sanguine teacher, who has just begun to see their inadequacy to the purposes and wants of per- sonal instruction. The printed question, even when extended to minutiae, may be rendered very serviceable to the formation of habits of faithful application and close study^ as well as accurate recapitula^ tion ; if the young student is directed to make use of it as a test, in regard to the exactness of his preparation for a personal examination on the subject of his lesson ; if he is duly trained not to regard the printed question as merely the teacher^s part in a verbatim mechani- cal dialogue between the master and himself, in which the last word in the sentence of the one speaker forms the literal ^^ cue " to the first word in that of the other, but, as a criterion of his knowledge of the subjects, as a friendly intimation that, if he can not furnish an answer to the. question before him, he is so far deficient in his preparation to give intelligently an account of the part of the subject to which the question refers. Children's Questions. — ^But, it would be more to the purpose of the young teacher's business, if,- — instead of the printed aid offered to him in what should be his own part of a lesson, and which, if he respects his own mind, he will draw only from his own resources, according to the needs of the pupil, — the page of the text-book abounded, rather, in the questions which children would like to ask, for their personal information. The judicious instructor will always make free use of interrogation, as a means of ascertaining or aiding the degree of his pupil's intelligence. But, he will not overlook the fact that this proceifs, like that of the printer, in taking his proof impression, is to certify a result, — ^not to create it. The questions which the child is permitted or encouraged to put to his teacher, are, EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 51 (^D, the sole means by which the former is enabled to ^^set np'^ accurately in his mind the facts of the lesson required. The number and the closeness of these questions become, further, the expression and evidence of the interest which the pupil takes in the lesson. To the teacher who possesses the patient and sympathizing spirit of hii^ office, these questionings come gratefully to his ear, even when they betray the ** blank misgivings of a creature wandering in worlds not realized." It is then that he is most impressively reminded of the true nature of his work, as an intellectual guide and conductor. He is ever careful, therefore, to provoke, rather than repress, interrogation ; and, even so to frame his own questions that they shall serve to call forth fresh inquiries from his pupils. The appropriate discipline of the perceptive faculties, depending, as it does, on the frequent presentation of objects of sense, with d view to win attention, and secure exact observation, implies that the teacher resorts, on all occasions, to close questioning,^as the suggestive process by which the pupil is induced to use his own perceptive power, to rely on the fidelity of his own observation, and thus to acquire a knowledge which is substantial and thorough-going. But, it is not less true that, in proportion to the pupil's interest in the efforts which he makes, and the progressive steps which he takes in every process,' his very attainments will be suggesting and prompting further inqui- ries, for his future guidance. The spirit and intelligence, as well aa^ the pleasure, therefore, with which he proceeds in his work, will depend, to a great extent, on the consciousness that he is not working' in the dark. Mode of Answering Questions. — The answer to the pupil's questions, however, the true teacher is well aware, is not always to come from the lips of the instructor. It is often left intentionally to be the fruit of the learner's further efforts and closer examination. To withhold an answer to the most eager question, is sometimes a truer kindness than to give it. The ripe and perfect fruit of knowledge must some- times, like that of the tree, be patiently waited for, and wrought for. Leading Questions, — ^The wise teacher, however, will know as well when to put the skillful leading question, which does not supersede, but rather calls forth the activity of the pupil's mind. The leading question, though unlawful at the bar, is, under the management of ' the prudent teacher, the very turning point, in some cases, which decides whether he is " apt to teach," as an intelligent guide to the results of actual knowledge and true discipline. Direction and Information, as Didactic Processes Connected with the Exercise and Discipline of the Perceptive Faculties, — The answers 52 EDUCATION OP THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. , given by a judicious teacher to the questions of his pupils will often consist in references to the sources of information, rather than in direct replies. In the study of natural objects, it is peculiarly import- ant that the pupil should see, and think, and judge, and discover, for himself. To such training in self-reliance and self-help, the exercise of the perceptive faculties on the details of form in animal, plant, and mineral, is preeminently adapted. The embarrassing complexity and intricacy, and the baffling abstruseness, and the perplexing obscurity, which sometimes characterize other subjects of investigation, and which call so loudly for the teacher's frequent aid to his pupil, do not exist here. The simplicity and the beauty of nature's products, invite and attract attention; and, every successive stage of examination leads unconsciously to another. The teacher has but to indicate and to prompt, and thus leave the mind the rich satisfaction of achieving its own progress. He is not tempted to fall into the besetting sin of instruction, — that of anticipating, and assuming, and asserting, and so quenching the mind's healthful thirst by the lukewarm distillations of precept and rule, instead of leaving it to refresh itself by drinking at the cool, vivifying fountain-head of original observation. An eminent naturalist once gave a very impressive lesson in the art of teaching to one who is himself, professionally, an instructor. The question proposed to the savant was, "How may we distinguish snakes which are venomous from those which are not ? " " Come into my study," was the answer, " and I will place before you some of each kind ; and, then, by examining, you can see for yourself.*' It is thus the true teacher proceeds with his pupils : it is thus he gives certainty to knowledge, and clearness and vigor to the mental faculties. As a guide and director of the mind, the intelligent instructor points his pupils to the sources from which he himself obtained inform- ation, and thus admits them to the honor of partnership with him in investigation and accumulation. Teacher and student thus become allied by friendly participation in the same pursuits ; and, a high, though unostentatious, moral effect is blended with the cultivation and enjoyment of intellect The teacher, however, who thus wisely throws his pupils, as far as practicable on their own resources, does not thereby preclude the ample furnishing of all needed information, which intelligent apprecia- tion and successful application may require. He will, on the contrary, take pleasure in disclosing facts, in tracing analogies, and furnishing explanations, when these serve to give additional value and attraction to the theme of his instructions. He will thus contrive, at once, to satisfy and to stimulate the mind's natural craving for knowledge, and EDUCATION OF THE PBRCEFITVE FACULTIES. 53 make every step of progress the foothold and the impulse to yet another. He will still be careful, however, even when imparting direct information, to confine it within those limits which shall leave a wide and inviting field for the pupil's own investigations, and secure his personal interest in future explorations, which may subserve the im- portant purposes of acquisition, as connected with attainments in the various departments of education, or with those advances in science which may form a large part of his own conscious happiness, and con- tribute, ultimately, to the general diffusion of knowledge. Comparison, as' a Disciplinary Exercise of the Perceptive Facul- ties, — The unity of the intellect, as a principle in the human constitution, forbids any attempt at literal or exhaustive analysis, in the study of its diversified character and modes of action. In edu- cational relations, more particularly, all attempts at the analytic observ- ation of mental phenomena, for purposes of intelligent and healthful culture, must ever be regarded as merely analogical presentations and figurative expositions. The successive stages of mental development and discipline, in like manner, are incapable of being cut apart and separated by any dividing line of demarcation. On the contrary, they naturally blend into one another, with a closeness of connection, and a delicacy of shading, which does not admit of precise distinctions, or marked discriminations. When we group, therefore, the various modes in which intellect manifests itself ii> action, and designate one of these groups by the term " perceptive," and another by the term " reflective," we recognize a distinction, with regard to which, even a superficial observer of the mind's activity, would not venture to say that it is not founded on an actual difference. Still, we should find it extremely difficult to lay down a precise line of demarcation, and say with certainty, in every instance, here terminates the perceptive, and here commences the re- flective action of intellect. Thus, in assigning its place to the master faculty of intelligence, we should feel no hesitation in ranking reason among the reflective faculties. But, when this noble power descends, as has been so happily expressed, to the humble office of "judging according to sense," it necessarily partakes of the character of the class of faculties with which it mingles in action. It constitutes, thus, an element and a condition in perception itself; as is verified by the oonsequences of its absence, in the intellectual action of the insane person, who distinctly enough perceives the form of his friend, but, in the inexplicable aberration of reason, salutes him as a foreign ambas- sador, come to do him the honor of a visit, in consideration of his world- renowned skill in disentangling complicated questions in state policy. 54 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. , Comparison combiiies, usually, an act of volition with the process of observation, directed to two or more objects, for the purpose of recognizing their unity or diversity of character ; and, hence, is prop- erly regarded as but the preliminary or introductory step to the act of judgment, which pronounces the case one of analogy or anomaly. It is not unusual, therefore, to class comparison as purely an act of judgment, or decisive reason ; and, by its oflSce, a reflective faculty. As a process of intellection, however, it obviously commences with the perceptive act of attentive observation; and, as a disciplinary and developing operation in mental culture, it falls under the special care of the educator, as an exercise in the early training and forming of intellectual habit. Proper Rank of Comparinon, as an Intellectual Process. — ^Regarded in connection with the study of natural objects, the act of comparison, is an exercise of the perceptive faculties, which, in the order of intel- ligence, is the immediate sequel to the processes of examination, analysis, and inspection. These, indeed, are but the legitimate pre- paratory stages for its wider mode of action, and higher offices in the sphere of intelligence. Yet, in its turn, it is but the humble minis- tration of intellect to the yet higher offices oi classification, under the guidance of the master function of induction, which presides over all the varied forms of intellectual activity, connected with the observa- tion and study of nature. Intellectual Effects of the Discipline Resulting from the Exercise of Comparison, — Comparison, as a process of intelligence, commenced under the watchful eye of the teacher, on the objects of perception, — the only sure and firm ground of early mental development, — gives a certainty and a skill to the perceptive action of tlie mind, which tell, with sure effect, on all analogous operations of a more purely intellec- tual or even an abstract character, in later stages of education. The influence of the habit of careful and exact comparison, extends, with full effect, to the highest efforts of mature mind, in the most compli- cated and intricate relations of thought, in mathematics, in logic, and in language. Comparison, as the first step in the higher progress of the mind, when making its transition from the study of single objects to that of numbers, and grouping them, by their ana/0^/^5, in classes, brings the intellect under the dominion of order, introduceia it to the discipline of method, and ultimately rewards it by the recognition of law. Principle and rule then take charge of the intelligent mind ; and, as ** strong siding champions" beat down every barrier to its progress toward consummate knowledge. Natural Objects peculiarly adapted to the purposes of Comparison, as a Disciplinary Exercise, — As means of discipline for the perceptive EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 55 futilities, in various modes of comparison, the materials for practice, furnished in the different departments of nature, are peculiarly adapted to the great ends of education. Their mutual resemblances and con* trasts, the prominent features of their correspondent forms, seem to solicit comparison and classification, as destined results of man^s men- tal adaptation to the scene in which he moves, and which so abounds in objects of attractive interest, — the germs of intelligence, enveloped in consummate beauty, that they may lead to the conscious delights of knowledge. * By the introductory discipline resulting from the humble exercise of carefully comparing objects and their characteristic parts, the young nfind receives its preparation for the scientific intelligence and the •conscious pleasure with which it subsequently enters on the wide range of action afforded by the inviting analogies revealed in the study of comparative physiology and anatomy, and in all investiga* tions to which science conducts, wherever exact classification and con- summate knowledge are dependent on attentive and faithfiil compari- son, — a condition equally indispensable, whether in collating the vestiges of past eras in the physical history of our globe, or those of language and of intellect, ad revealed in the investigations of philology. Classijication, as an Exercise for the JDincipline of the Perceptive Faculties, — ^This form of intellectual action, — which, in its various aspects, may be said to constitute and to consummate human know- ledge, in whatever department we contemplate, — is the immediate sequel of the preceding act of mind, in collating the objects of obser- vation, or their peculiar features and characteristics. The resemblances which comparison recognizes in objects, become the leading titles and significant designations of groups and classes. Intellect is thus fi*eed from the burden of the endless and unsatisfactory task of wandering from object to object, in detail, without any conscious thread of con- nection or guidance, and without any suggestion of a definite end in view, in its wearisome mode of action. By the aid of classification, the chaos of disconnected individualities is converted into an orderly creation, where everything, as of old, is seen to exist "after his kind," Knowledge thus becomes a series of aggregated accumulations, arranged and labelled to the intellectual eye ; and, investigation is rendered a rational and inviting pursuit, — directed by definite aims, and leading to satisfactory results. Benefits of Classificationy as an Intellectual Exercise. — By the process of classification, man is enabled to trace the successive footsteps of the Creator in the outward world, to recognize the gi*and law of universal order, and yield obedience to its dictates in his modes of I 56 EDUCATION OF THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIEB. roental action. The student of nature, pursuing his investigations in this spirit, is prepared, by successive illustrations of fisuit, to amplify his classifications into those wide inductions which are the glory of science, and which aid the intellect in accomplishing the vast general- izations for which its powers of comprehension and its ceaseless aspira- tions seem equally adapted. The exercise of classification tends to create in the young mind the love of order and method. It is, in fact, a strictly logical discipline, resulting in the highest mental benefits, and preparing the heart for the influence of the most' exalted moral principle. It belongs, how- ever, asi a process of mental culture, to a veiy early stage of intel- lectual progress, and begins appropriately with the first conscidhs steps of advancement in the observation and study of nature. The child, in Nature's great school, finds himself placed in a vast cabinet of specimens, which he takes a peculiar pleasure in examining, and from which, even when little aided by formal education, he draws, with delight, stores of personal knowledge, and the pure pleasure of the conscious activity which his spirit craves. The objects of nature, as the results of a designing Mind, seeml peculiarly adapted to the end of drawing forth the action of intellect and building up intellectual character in the human being. In no respect is this more true than with reference to the facilities furnished in the three great kingdoms of nature, for the purely intellectual pro- cesses of arranging and classifying the objects of observation. The young mind here finds itself placed in a sphere of order, in which every thing is arranged for the correspondent action of thought ; in which every object invites to observation, and every group solicits a recognition of the principle of classification. Early Training in Classification, — Furnished with such an appa- ratus for the purposes of instruction, the teacher has but to point sug- gestively to the successive classes of objects most easily accessible to the young learner in the great classified receptacles of earth, air, and water. He has but to encourage his pupil to collect, compare, and classify the various forms of mineral, plant, and animal, which lie within the range of his daily walks ; or, even to deposit, in any ijon- venient and suitable receptacle, groups of leaves of similar form, and to define the shape or the feature which, in his distribution of them, is made the ground of classification. The Jearner thus obtains a measure and a record of his progress in knowledge ; and, the know- ledge which he acquires, possesses a true and substantia] character, which, in turn, affects that of his mind, giving it a taste for solid acquirements and genuine pleasures. CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. Introductory Observations. — The classification of the mental faculties under the designations of "perceptive," "expressive/* a{id " reflective," was adopted in the preceding lecture of this series, as a convenient one for a survey of the human mind, with reference to the purposes of education. This classification, it was mentioned, could not be regarded as founded on lines of distinction which could be assumed as rigorously or literally exact ; since its terms are properly but so many names for various states, acts, or operations of the mind, — itself one and the same in all. Imperfect as such a classification must necessarily be, however, it enables us, by its distinctions, to trace more clearly and definitely the forms of mental action, and the power which the mind possesses of exerting itself in different modes ; and it affords to the educator, when contemplating the intellectual capabilities of man with reference to the processes and effects of culture, the advantages of analysis and systematic examination, as aids to the prosecution of his^ inquiries. Following the order of nature and of fact, when we trace the suc- cession of action in the exercise of man's intellectual powers, as these are designated in the classification which we have adopted, we observe that, in the mature and deliberate use of the mental faculties, the habitual and normal succession is, (1.) Observation, (2.) Reflectiariy (3.) Expression, In the immature and susceptible condition of childhood and youth, however, the spontaneous activity and develop- ment of the communicative tendencies of the mind cause the action of the expressive faculties to precede that of the reflective ; and to this law the order of education will properly correspond. The perfect action and discipline of the power of expression, re- quire, no doubt, all the aid derived from the maturity of reason and re- flection, and, consequently, an advanced stage of intellectual culture. But, in the history of man's mental progress, under the guidance of natural laws, the educator perceives and recognizes in the young mind, an early necessity of utterance, or of expression in some form, as one of the divinely implanted instincts by which it is actuated, and 58 • CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. which therefore becomes an indication to be obeyed in the plan and progress of culture. The phenomena of the external world irresistibly impel the child to utter the emotions which they excite ; and the judicious educator will always encourage the young observer to record them, long before the era of experience in which they become subjects of reflective thought « or profound cogitation. To give consistency and effect, however, to the forms of expression, — whether for purposes of record or of discipline, — a certain degree of progress must have been attained in the exercise and development not only of the perceptive, but also of the reflective faculties ; — a result inseparable, indeed, — as was mentioned in the preceding lecture, — from the right direction of the perceptive powers themselves. In this and in every other attempt to trace the order of mental development, we are always brought back to the grand primal truth that the mind is properly one, in all its action ; we are reminded that this great fact is the basis of all true culture, and that the different intellectual /acu/^t^5, as we term them, are but the varied phases or modes of action of the same subtle power. As an introduction, accordingly, to the discussion of the principles which regulate the cultivation of the expressive faculties, as a depart- ment of intellectual education, our last lecture followed, to some extent, the necessary connection existing between the discipline of the perceptive faculties and the primary action of the reflective. With this preliminary preparation, we will now proceed, on the plan indi- cated in the first lecture of this series, to the study of the various forms of mental action which, in the figurative language unavoidable in all intellectual analysis and classification, may be termed the expressive faculties. The plan proposed embraced, it will be recollected, the following prominent features: — (1.) an enumeration of each group of faculties, by its modes, or forms, of action; (2.) the actuating principle, or impelling force, of each group ; (3.) the tendency, or habit, of action in each ; (4.) the result, or issue, of such action ; (5.) the educational processes, forms of exercise, or modes of culture, suggested by the four preceding considerations. Following the order here mentioned, we commence with the (I.) Enumeration of the Expressive Faculties. These may be grouped under the following designations : — Emotion, Imagination, Fancy, Imitation, Personation, Representation, Lan- guage, Taste. Explanatory Remark. — ^To ascertain, with precision, what powers CVLTIVATIOIf OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES.' 59 or attributes of the human being should be regarded as properly comprehended under the above denomination, the educator would do well, here as elsewhere, to advert to the primitive signification of the terra which is employed to designate the class of faculties to which it is applied. At every step of his progress in the study of man as a being capable of systematic development, the teacher finds a guiding light perpetually emanating from the primary sense of the terms which constitute the nomenclature of intellectual philosophy, in its nalysis of the human faculties. These terms are often highly figu- rative, and hence peculiarly suggestive with reference whether to dis- tinctness of classification, or to purposes of culture and development In no case does this remark apply more forcibly than in the present The term " expression," (pressing out,) implies, in the first instance, the existence of something within^ which, under the action of a force, working whether from within or from without, is pressed out, and thus rendered external, palpable, or perceptible. Referring this term to the phenomena of human experience, we derive, from its primary and figurative sense, the inference, or impli- cation, that man is endued with the power of giving an external man- ifestation to his internal conditions of thought or feeling. The form of this manifestation may be that of attitudes and actions of the body, changes in the aspect of the countenance, effects on the tones of the voice, or efforts in the organs of articulation, and modifications of the accents of speech ; it may appear in imitative acts, in suggestive graphic delineations, or in intelligible written characters. But in all cases, it is the representative ea;pression (pressing out^) of what has been impressed, or is present, within. — ^The inward working may be that of a feeling, an affection, an emotion, or a passion : it may be that of an impressive idea, or of a thought, an opinion, or a senti- ment But the result is invariably an outward effect, audible or visible. Whatever power or faculty, therefore, has an agency in the process of thus giving an external manifestation to an internal mental condi- tion, will be * appropriately comprehended under the designation ** expressive ;'* and the classification will be exhaustive and complete, if it include all those mental states, acts, or operations which give form to thought or feeling. The preceding enumeration of the ex- pressive faculties, however, is intended to present only those which are prominently active in the ordinary conditions of humanity, and which are the principal subjects of disciplinary training, in the pro- cesses of education. 1. Emotion: its Offices in Expression, — Emotion is the natural language of that sensibility which tends to render man conscious of 00 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRE8BIVB FACtTLTIEfl. himself, which serves to unite him, by a law of sympathy, with other beings as well as with those of his own race, and which, as a stim- ulus to his power of will, impels him to the various forms of salutary and pleasurable, or injurious and destructive action. Without this power, ( ** emotion," — movin-y outward^) man might, indeed, possess the profoundest capacity of feeling, the utmost depth of thought, the grandest or the most beautiful forms of imagination. His whole inner world might be consciously a scene of ideal glory. But, to his fellow man, he would be mute and unintelligible. Self-contained and solitary, the individual would be as destitute of sympathy as of expression, and live unappreciated and uninterpreted, because incom- municative and unintelligible. Emotion, therefore, we 6nd is not left wholly at the discretion or the control of man, as a purely voluntary power. Its first and all its strongest manifestations are spontaneous and involuntary. It is the natural and irrepressible language of that wondrous capacity of pleasure and pain with which the human being is invested, in conse- quence of the susceptive sensibility with which his Creator has seen fit to enliven and to protect his nature. Emotion, as the natural expression of sympathy, renders feeling legible and audible, and thus enables man instinctively to utter or to interpret the language of the heart ; as an intimation of the will, it enables him to read the disposition and intentions, friendly or hostile, of his fellow beings. It is an early instrument of power to the help- lessness or the sufferings of infancy, while it proclaims the presence of pain, and brings to the little patient the ready sympathy and reme- dial aid of the mother. It expresses and attracts the sympathetic affections of childhood and youth. It gives eloquence to the speech of man, warmth to the cordial welcome of friendship, or fire to the hostility of hatred. It melts in pity and compassion for suffering ; it glows with indignation at oppression and wrong ; it bends in humility and adoration before Infinite majesty, and in reverence to human worth ; or it looks haughtily down on the lowly, spurns the petitioner for mercy, and tramples on the weak and the unresisting. Its power for good or evil is unspeakable in all that involves the moral or the intellectual character of human utterance. The Forms of Emotion, — ^These ve as various as the mental rela- tions of man. It is Love, in the instincts of affection ; Wonder, in those of the intellect ; Awe, in those of the spirit ; Admiration, in those of sentiment ; Joy and Grief, to the heart ; Hatred and Re- venge, in the malignant passions ; Ardor and Enthusiasm, in the aspi- rations of the soul ; Courage and Exultation, in conflict ; Fear and CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FAdTLTTES. Ql Terror, in danger ; Embarrassment, Confusion, and Shame, in /at'Zwr^' or defeat ; Anguish, in pain ; Contrition or Remorse, in conscious guilt ; Agony and Despair, in utter ruin ; Serenity, Tranquillity, and Peace, in conscious rectitude ; Calmness and Composure, in self- control ; Sorrow and Gladness, in sympathy ; Laughter, in mirth ; Caricature, in humor ; Gloom, in melan^^holg. Effects of Emotion, — Its aspects and its traits are as numerous as the ever-changing moods of the " many-sided mind ;" and its power of expression ranges through all degrees of force, from the gentle half- whisper of confiding love, or the accents of a mother's tender- ness, to the scream of madness and the burst of rage. It moves to ' deeds of gentleness and mercy, as consciously pleasing acts dictated by the principle of duty ; and it prompts to the perpetration of crimes at the thought of which humanity shudders. In all circumstances it becomes an expressive language of indescribable power, — a power for the exercise of which man is laid under responsibleness the most appalling. Its genial effects carry man beyond the limits of his nature, and enable him to approximate to the benignity of an angel ; and its malignant workings invest him with the character of a fiend. Emotion^ the Inspiration of Language. — Emotion, as the natural, involuntary, or irrepressible manifestation of feeling, is, in itself, the primary form as well as cause of expression. The writhings and the outcries of pain, the tears and the wailings of sorrow, the smiles and the sweet tones of pleasure, the leaping and the laughter of exuberant joy, the exultant attitudes and shouts of triumph, the frown, the harsh tone, and the blow of anger, are all a universally intelligible language. But emotion is also the power which gives life, and force, and effect to voluntary and deliberate utterance, not only in the tones of spoken language but in the burning words which the glowing heart prompts to the pen of the eloquent writer, and which, when read from the mouldering parchment or the crumbling tablet, ages after they were written, have still the power to stir men's blood, " as with the sound of a trumpet." It inspires the modern youth with the eloquence of Demosthenes, in the words with which he " fulmined over Greece ;" it kindles the heart of the student in his " still removed place," with the fire and the shout and the fierceness of the battle scenes of Homer ; it appalls him with the spectacle of the victims of inexorable fate, in the defiant appeals of the suffering Prometheus, as he writhes on his rock of torture, — in the superhuman agonies of the doomed Orestes, — in the wailings of the guiltless CEdipus, when he is awakened to the complicated horrors which he has unwittingly drawn down upon himself and upon the very authors of his being. I 5^ CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRSS8IVB FAOULTIBS. It is the same expressive power, in its more genial forms, which lalls the youthful reader into the dreamy repose of the pastoral scenes of the eclogue, where " Evei7 ■hepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale." It is the same power, in its ecstatic moods, which lights up the soul with the brilliant fire of the lyric ode, whose burning words have immortalized equally the bard and the hero of the antique world of gods and godlike men ; and it is still the same magic power over sympathy which holds us entranced over " what, though rare, of later age," we feel to possess the same sway over the heart as that which was written of old for all time. 2. Imagination : its Office in Expression, — Emotion endows man with the power of expression : his ability to give force and effect to expression, is as his capability of emotion ; and the vividness of emo- tion is dependent on his susceptibility of feeling. But the utmost in- tensity of feeling might exist in internal consciousness merely ; the most vehement excitement of emotion might find no definite or intel- ligible manifestation ; it might be but the idiot's " sound and fury, signifying nothing ;*' the noblest sentiments of the human soul might find no adequate expression ; were it not for the action of another faculty, — that whose oflSce it is to give form to the vague effects of feeling, to embody the evanescent phenomena of emotion, and to give to the abstractions of thought and the generalizations of sentiment a definite shape and the durability of a pern^anent record. Consciousness and introversion might enable the individual man to hold communion with his own inner conditions of thought and feel- ing ; and memory might enable him to recall them. But, as it is not given to man, by any act of mere direct introspection, to read the heart or mind of his fellow man, sympathetic and intelligent human intercommunication requires, as a condition, the aid of some power or faculty by which feeling may be distinctly manifested, not merely in its stronger and involuntary excitements, but also in its quietest moods, in its gentlest movements and most delicate effects. The communica- tion of pure thought, apart entirely from excited emotion, is also a necessity of man's mental character and relations. Intellect, not less than feeling, has its claims on utterance, that the individual may be- come consciously a progressive being, and that mutual intelligence and benefit may be ensured to society. Some means, in a word, are needed to represent what is present to the mind, to suggest the idea or the thought which, by a law of his nature impelling him, man de- sires to communicate to his fellow being. CULTIVATION OP THE EXPRESSIVE PACULTIE8. Q3 Analogy ^ the Medium of ExpreHBwn, — ^Taught by a wisdom above his own, man finds, in the analogies of the outward universe, corre- spondences to his own inward states of thought and feeling. These analogous forms he refers to as interpreters, in his acts of expression ; he transfers them, by a heaven-taught instinct, from their original places in the visible outward sphere to his own inner and invisible world of thought and feeling. These borrowed forms, addressing themselves to a common nature in common circumstances, become the suggestive language of emotion and intelligence between man and man ; and, as intellectual skill and expertness are developed, these forms are at length multiplied and complicated so as to assume all the varied shapes of the current coin of speech, even in its most arbitrary modes ; — just as, in the history of human intercourse, traflQc, which commenced with the interchange and barter of commodities, gradually becomes a process of purchase and sale, by the adoption of convenient forms representing value and price. ^ Signijlcance of the term *^ Imagination.^ — The power by which man recognizes the analogies of form presented in the external world, the power by which he represents these, the power by which he trans- fers these to his own internal world, and thus images, by analogy, his invisible, impalpable, feelings and conceptions ; the power which thus embodies sentiment, and gives shape to language and all other modes of expression, is suggestively named "Imagination," — the imaging faculty. The Sphere of Imagination. — The ofiice of this faculty, as an ex- pressive power, is one of vast extent and of immense value ; and its domain, like that of emotion, is indefinite. IntellecJ;, in its widest excur- sions and its highest aims, is definite and limited. Its outward sphere is that of sense, as comprehended by the understanding, and measured by the rule of judgment ; its inner sphere is that of reason acting on data of definite thought, even in its purest abstractions and widest generalizations. Intellect, in its judicial and critical capacity, may justly assume the authority of deciding on the symmetry and pro- portion of expression as the form of thought. But it has no creative, no inventive power by which to call up form ; it may interpret, or ex- plain feeling ; but it can not, without the aid of imagination, embody it. Imagination extends its dominion alike over feeling and intellect : it possesses, exclusively, the power of investing them with form. As a sovereign in the vast world of analogy, it reaches, in one direction, to the farthest limits of the outward universe, wherever form exists, in conditions known or unknown ; in another direction, it penetrates the deepest secrets of human feeling, and brings them up from their ^4 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. darkest regions of half-unconscious being to the world of form and light, endues them with conscious life and speech, and sends them abroad as ministering angels of good or evil ; in still another direction, it explores the ethereal world of thought, and, by its creative energy, gives imagery, and form, and recognized character to impalpable ideas, clothes the naked conceptions of intellect with the garb of symmetrical expression, forges the golden links of language for the continuous processes of reason, invests sentiment with the living maj- esty and power of utterance, and crowns the inspired productions of the artist and the poet with the consummate beauty of form and the music of immortal verse. 3. Fancy: its Effects on Expression, — ^This faculty, although it possesses a character so peculiarly marked by external tendencies, and proneness to a lower sphere of action than that of imagination, can hardly claim, with justice, the dignity of a separate and independent existence The term " Fancy," (fantasy^) is, strictly speaking, but another name for, imagination, when that faculty, as an expressive power, assumes, occasionally, a lower than its wonted office, and, not content with the creation of form, descends to the addition of minute detail, in the shape, or figure, or color of its embodiments. Fancy, considered as a separate faculty, may be regarded as the servant and laborer of imagination, employed to take charge of all the merely out- ward effects of expressive art, but whose ambition sometimes leads it to aim at higher offices than it is, in itself, competent to fill. Attempting the creation of visible beauty, it assumes the office of a presiding deity over the fleeting, fluctuating phenomena of fashion and other mani- festations of arbitrary taste. Uniting itself with humor and burlesque, it displays the whole world of fantastic oddity, drollery, and grotesque effects, of every species. It handles, with peculiar skill, the pencil of the caricaturist, and delights, sometimes, in the most hideous exaggera- tions. It contrives, occasionally, to lay mischievous hands on Taste, and with perverting influence to make her play all manner of antics, quite unconscious, all the while, how infinitely absurd and ridiculous she is making herself appear. Hence the whole world of absurd form and combinations in modes of dress and decoration, in incongruous architecture, deformed sculpture, distorted drawing, tawdry coloring, paltry novel-writing, fugitive (and vagabond) verses, agonistic orations, and nondescript lectures. Fancy, however, has also her own becoming and proper part to play, when, in strictest unison w^ith true Taste, and in filial obedience to her parent, Imagination, she gives symmetry to our dwellings and to our garments, genuine grace to manners, true beauty to our gardens, CULTIVATION OP THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. ^5 happy touches to the details of artistic execution, chaste style to wri- ting, and manly plainness to speech. 4. Imitation: its Tendencies. — ^The faculty of Imitation and the tendency to its exercise, which, — in the earlier stages of life, more par- ticularly, — man possesses in common with many other of the animal tribes, form, in whatever regards expression, a peculiar source of power. It ensures, when judiciously developed, as a salutary instinct, all the advantages arising from native facility, as contrasted with the comparatively slow acquirements and laborious endeavors of mere arti- ficial or mechanical training. The long non-age required for the comparatively slow development and maturing of the human being, implies a large dependence on the fostering care of parental guardian- ship and example ; and the innate propensity to imitation, on the part of the child, coincides, in the effect of rendering more ample the opportunity of a long course of model training and practical lessons in the appropriate accomplishments of humanity. Among these, Speech, as the consummation of the expressive faculties, thus becomes the inheritance which one generation transmits to another, — a posses- sion unconsciously acquired, although actually the result of long-con- tinued training, and sometimes, of painful efforts in detail. Drawing J as an Imitative Art — The imitative tendency of the young, leading, as it does, to the perfecting of utterance, as an exer- cise in which practice begets skill, extends its influence, by the law of analogy, far and wide, over every branch of art which involves ex- pression as a result. Nor is there one of all these branches which does not, by the habitual practice of it, under the same law, serve to discipline and perfect the power of expression in every other. The feelings, the imagination, the conceptive power, the taste, and even the critical judgment of the young mind, are all called into as active exercise, in every earnest attempt to draw in outline, to shade, or to color the form of any external object, as in any endeavor to describe it by tongue or pen. Indeed, the extreme fixedness of atten- tion demanded for exact and faithful delineation by the pencil, ensures a yet higher degree of mental activity, than does any other form of descriptive execution, and contributes more effectually to the develop- ment of graphic power of expression in language, than can any direct exercise in speech or writing ; because the same powers are exerted in the one case as in the other, but with much more care and closeness of application. MusiCy as an Imitative Art, — Another of the poetic and purely beneficent forms of the divinely implanted faculty of imitation, by which man attains the developnjent of his powei:s of expression and 1 E I QQ CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE PACULTIE8. communicatioD, is that of Music, in the form of song. The youi^ ear drinks in, instinctively and intuitively, the beauty of sound, as the eye takes in that of form and color. The laws of melodic variation of tone seem to be inscribed on the human ear, with few exceptions, as the laws of graceful form and expansion are stamped on the plant But the musical sense is not a merely dry perception or recognition, or a mechanical obedience to law. It is one of the most delightful forms in which man becomes conscious of the pleasure of feeling or the power of emotion ; and, as his culture extends, he recognizes it as the intelligent utterance of sentiment, in the noblest expressions of social sympathy, or even of devotional aspiration. The imitative practice of music, accordingly, in all its forms, from the humblest lullaby of the nursery to the most exalted strains of the perfect vocalist, becomes a powerful discipline of the ear, because of the heart, the intellect, and the imagination. It prepares them to receive more fully the impressions of the melody of speech, and, in due season, to give forth their effects in appropriate expression. The child imbibes from the mother^s song the theme of its own imitative efforts, and from the simple beauty of the natural model, catches, at the same time, unconsciously, the emotion of which it is the utterance, and thus early learns to unite expression with feeling. At a later stage of his musical culture and development, he acquires more consciously and more distinctly, a perception of the inspiration which marks the tones of the erapassioned eloquence of the orator and the poet, and learns to appreciate the delicious melody of the *^ numerous verse" which ** clothes the poet's thought in fitting sound." The great masters in musical science and art, abundantly prove, by the trauscendent delight which their efforts yield to universal man, the power and value of music as an expressive art, independentiy of its relation to the cultivation of the power of language. But the in- tensity of pleasure derived ft'om the perfection of musical composition and execution combined, suggests instructively to the educator the power which even the elementary practice of this imitative art exerts on the character of expression, when embodied in the forms of lan- guage, — ^the ability which it gives to touch the heart, or to kindle emotion, and to throw the whole soul of the speaker and the writer into the mould of utterance. 5. Personation : its Tendency and Effects^ as a Mode of Ex- pression, — The faculty of imitation with which man is endowed, as a form of expressive power, leading him to the acquisition of language, is early manifested in the passion of childhood for Personation ; the living, actual representation of what he sees going on in the human CULTIVATION OF TAB SZPRBBBIVE FACULTIBA ^. world around him. The Iwely feelipgs of the child are not.satisfied- with the mere verbal presentation of thought and feeling in the arbi- trary and conventional forms of language. He has an instinctive desire to impersonate the being of others in himself, and thus to en* ter more fully into their feelings, and acquire a truer power of ex- pressing them. To his fresh sympathies and ever active imagination, life around him is a drama : " all the world's a stage, and all the men and women are but players,'' each performing his part. The child, the primitive man, the poet, all tend to dramatize hu- man life, and to present it in living impersonation. The boy struts the mimic soldier, to his own mimic music ; he drags his little wagon as an imaginary fire-engine, or mounts a chair and plays the orator to his little mates. In his puerile sports, he enacts a character or an incident, in dumb show, and requires that his juvenile companions shall express it in words. He personates a hero in history, or makes one in a group in a tableau, in which, as an Indian brave, he is about to dash out the brains of Captain Smith with his war-club, when his sister, as the compassionate princess Pocahontas, rushes in, and res- cues the hero. At the academy exhibition, he personifies Mark An- tony weeping over the murdered Csesar, and with words of fire rousing the Romans to mutiny, ^ crying havoc I and letting slip the dogs of war ;'' or he resorts, in preference, to the pen, and dramatizes a scene from his country's history, which he and his class-mates enact to the life, according to their power. In the maturity of his intellect, and smid Uie grave duties of professional life, he pauses, perhaps, to re- create himself, and delight the world with the production of a Comus or a Hamlet, in which, besides furnishing the composition, he still takes an active part in the business of representation, and, true to the dramatic instinct of his nature, sustains a character himself. It is thus^that he completes the educational training by which he attains to the height of eloquence and expressive power in word and action ; B^ this dramatic faculty of personation, while it gives vividness and intensity to his utterance, proclaims the meaning and intention of the self-discipline to which he was early impelled, by unconscious instinct. 6. Representation : The Language of Signs, — In addition to the more imaginative and, sometimes, physical or corporeal manifestations of expressive power, which the human being exhibits in imitative acts, he possesses, as his special attribute, in virtue of his intellectual en- dowments, working in unison with the instinctive elements of his na- ture, that peculiar faculty of Representation, by which he is enabled to suggest his thoughts or feelings to the mind of his fellow man, by substituting for graphic or mimetic, or other forms of delineation, con- ^ CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIEB. ventional signs, audible or visible, devised by Us imaginative facul- ties of invention and combination. These signs are recognized and defined by his conceptive intellect ; they are interpreted by the under- standing, acting on a law of arbitrary association, established by mu- tual agreement or common consent, and ultimately sanctioned by prevalent usage. Furnished with this primitive telegraphic apparatus of audible and visible signs, man is enabled to put himself in com- munication with his sympathetic, intelligent, and rational fellow- beings, — to reveal to them the workings of his mind, and disclose the inmost secrets of his heart Speech and Writing. — Disciplined and perfected by art and skill, and aided by ingenious and asiduous educational cultivation, man^s primitive power of utterance and expression, ultimately manifests it- self in the consummated forms of spoken and written language, regu- lated by the laws of thought, as dictated by the sciences of logic and grammar, and adorned by the graces of rhetoric. Language, a measure of Power, — The feeble but persevering en- deavors of childhood to conquer the diflBculties of articulation, and to compass the power of oral expression, indicate, by the successive years which the task demands, how arduous is its accomplishment, and how thoroughly it puts to proof the ability which the young hu- man being possesses to direct and develop his own powers of exe- cution. Yet more striking is the magnitude of the task and the tri- umph, in the progress achieved by the student of written language, from the date of his first attempt, in boyhood, to pen a letter or com- pose a theme, to the time when, in the maturity of his intellectual manhood, he rises to address assembled multitudes of his fellow men, and to sway them by the potency of triumphant eloquence ; or when he issues from his poetic privacy a work which shall live for aga^ as an object of wonder and admiration. Pictured and Written Characters. — Somewhat similar, indeed, have been the difficulty and the progress in the attainment of a mam tery over the merely external part of written language ; as we per- ceive when tracing the process from its primal rude attempts in the form of graphic delineations, through its advancement to symbolic representation, and, ultimately, to phonetic characters and alphabetic letters. Of the width of this vast field of human labor, and of the toil which its cultivation has cost, we have no adequate conception, till we look at the graphic delineations which form the historical records of Nineveh, or at the symbolic hieroglyphics and the clumsy phonetic characters inscribed on the temples of Egypt, and then con- trast with these the simple and symmetrical letters of the Greek or CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. Qg Roman alphabet, known and read alike throughout the ancient and modem world of civilization. The Value of Language, — ^Man's expressive power seems to have consummated itself in the representative phenomena of language. In this form his whole nature, animal, intellectual, and moral, finds effectual utterance ; and by this instrumentality, does he become pre- eminently a progressive being. Language is the channel in which the ceaseless stream of mental action flows onward to its great re- sults. Without this outlet, his soul, imprisoned within itself, would stagnate, and all its wondrous powers perish from inaction. As the medium of communication between mind and mind, language renders education practicable, and brings to the aid of the individual the ac- cumulated thoughts of all times and of all men. Language is the peciiliar and chosen province of education. Every process of human culture is conducted through its agency ; every result attained in hu- man progress is recorded in its terms ; and in every civilized and cul- tivated community language is justly taken as the measure of indi- vidual and social attainment. 1. Taste : The Signification of the Term. — ^The word " Taste," em- ployed to designate one of the expressive faculties, might seem, from its primary signification, {relish,) to be one appropriately applied rather to a passive and receptive condition of mind, than to one so active or energetic as are all those which are properly termed " ex- pressive.*' But, in the affairs of the mental world, not less than in those of the political, influence is often more efficient than power. So it is with Taste. — ^The office of this faculty in relation to express- ion, is to retain, in the selection and use of language, the relish for appropriateness, symmetry, and grace, which the soul has imbibed from the primitive beauty of the forms and the effects — in other words, the language — of nature, — that other name for life and truth. Character of True Taste. — As true taste secures genuine beauty of effect, it is not a merely passive power. It rejects every false savor ; for it relishes only the true. It refuses to inhale the flavor of the artificial perfume ; because it prefers the aroma of nature. It detests the ugly, and shuns the ungraceful ; but it loves the truly beautiful, and builds the fabric of noble thought " after the pattern shown it on the mount," as a chaste harmonious whole, conceived in pure ideal perfection, and executed with faultless skill, like that structure which " Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and vofces sweet ; Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid With golden architrave ; nor did there want Cornice or frieze with bossy sculpture graven ; The roof was fretted gold." .Jjro CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. Taste is oot a quality merely negative in its influence : it is, in language, a positive power. It suggests and prescribes beauty ; and, in all expression, beauty is power. Taste virtually decides and ordains the forms of language. It is therefore justly classed as an expressive faculty. It blends its effects, undoubtedly, witb those of imagination and fancy, and with those of sentiment and emotion ; controlling and directing and modifying these by its intuitive recognition of the eter- nal laws of beauty and proportion, and instinctively rejecting every "blemish. If it is sometimes lost, to appearance, in the effects pro- duced by the more obvious working of other expressive forces ; ite actual presence and power are not less deeply felt in the pervading harmony which, in such circumstances, it has established, and the genuine beauty which it has diffused. Its influence extends over every form of expressive art ; and its results are equally legible in all. It guides the pencil of the painter, the chisel of the sculptor, the tool of the artizan, the hand of the musician, the pen of the poet, the voice and action of the speaker. It reigns over every form of lan- guage ; and it moulds alike habit, character, and manners ; for all of these are but varied modes of expression. Taste, under the Infltience of Culture, — ^Of all the faculties with which man is endued, none, perhaps, is more susceptible of cultivation than taste ; and none yields larger results to the process. Trained under the fresh aspects of nature, and the strict discipline of truth, it becomes one of the most healthful influences that a liberal culture infuses into the human soul. It leads to the true, the pure, and the beautiful, in every relation of thought and feeling. Next to the hal- lowing influence of religious principle, it elevates and refines the whole being, and confers pure and lasting enjoyment on its possessor. It forms one of the most attractive graces of character, and breathes a genuine charm over the aspect of social life. But neglected, cor- rupted, or perverted, deprived of the healthful air of nature, aban- doned to coarse and low association, vitiated by the influence of false custom, distorted by conventional regulations, or tainted by 'the im- pure atmosphere of vice, taste becomes depraved, and morbidly craves deformity instead of beauty, and prefers falsehood to truth. (II.) The Actuating Principle, or Impelling Force, of the Expressive Faculties. Feeling : its Office in Expression, — The Sensibility with which the constitution of man, as a sentient animal and as a self-conscious moral being, is invested, and by which he is stimulated to action and to utterance, may, for our present purpose, be defined as that element in his nature, which, — whether manifesting itself in temporary sym- pathy, in permanent affections, — in vivid emotion, or intense passion^ ODLUVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTUaL ^J hfts, for its office, the excitation of his being. As the stimulus of his constitution, it impels man to the function of expression, as a result indispensable to sympathy and communication, — the necessary con- dition of his social and moral life. It originates in that sensibility to pleasifre and pain by \irhich the Creator has enhanced to man the enjoyment and the value of his organized and conscious existence, and secured it, at the same time, by a law of instinctive dread, from exposure to peril and to destruction. Feeling, as an Incitement to Sympathy, — The effect of sensibility, in this relation, is three-fold ; producing in man, (1.) a sympathy with the conditions and aspects of the surrounding external world, whether pleasurable or painful, attractive or repulsive ; (2.) the mutual sym- pathy, conscious correlation, and consentaneous action of the two component elements of his constitution, — ^body and mind ; (3.) a sympathy with his fellow men, which makes him a partaker of their pleasures and pains, causes him to desire a return of their sympathies to himself, and consequently leads him to expression and communica- tion, as the means of exciting and attracting it. Feeling, as an Involuntary or Fmpassioned Instigation,— The sen- tient and susceptible nature of man, his capacity and his experience of pleasure and pain, affected by causes whether external or internal in their operation, render him liable to unconscious and involuntary excitement, rising, sometimes, to the height of passion. This excite- ment manifesting itself ill emotion, — the main spring of expression, — becomes, in some circumstances, itself a language sufficiently defi- nite, intelligible, and expressive ; as may be observed in the laughter and the crying of the infant, in the sympathizing countenance of the compassionate mother, in the ruffied features and angry temper of impatient youth, in the ghastly face of the terrified child, in the glare of the hostile savage, or in the glad smiles of the emancipated school- boy at his holiday sport. Feeling, influenced by Imagination and Volition, — ^The beings and forms of his own ideal world of imagination and fancy, or of creative thought, have also their exciting power over the internal sense of pleasure or of pain, and impel man, moi*e or less voluntarily, to exhibit emotion, and to find its natural or customary form of ex- pression in the articulate words of speech, — in the simpler eloquence of mere vocal tone, uttered or suppressed,— or in the silent but more enduring form of the written word. Influence of Feeling on the Artist, — ^Even language itself however, in its most distinct and definite forms, is not always sufficiently ex- pressive for empassioned emotion. The admiration of grandeur or 72 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. beauty may be strong enough and deep enough to demand some more palpable and durable shape in which to express itself. The intense delight in beauty impels the Artist to devote himself to days and nights of toil over the image which alone can satisfy the longing of his soul, for the visible presence of the loveliness which his Yancy has conceived in his inner world of life and form. On the Actions of the Child and of the Adult, — It is the untaught, unconscious working of the emotion of love which makes the child find expression for his sympathy in the act of imitating the gait and actions, and the characteristic expressions of those whom he admires. Nor does adult man always escape the effects of this tendency, when maturity of mind and habits of grave research seem sometimes to render the result ridiculous. On the Actor and his Audience. — The natural delight in sympathy and communication, is the incitement which impels the actor on the stage to assume and exhibit, in his plastic frame and features, the agonies of dramatic passion, in all their terrific extremes, while he pei«onates the ravings of Lear, the frenzy of Othello, or the remorse of Macbeth ; and it is the same cause which attracts, night after night, to the crowded theatre, the audience who thus acknowledge the force of the great element of sympathy in human nature, and the power which vivid expression exercises over the heart, when it has even the well sustained semblance of coming from the heart. On the Eloquence of the Orator. — ^It is from sympathy with the very passions which he delights to excite, that the orator devotes his days of seclusion and nights of application to the study of every art by which expression may be heightened and emotion aroused,- when the decisive moment is come, and the interests of the state are at hazard, and men are to feel that their welfare or their safety is to depend on adopting the views of an eloquent and competent leader. On the soul of the Poet. — ^It is sympathy with the highest senti- ments and emotions of his race, and the conscious delight in giving these a noble utterance, that inspires the poet with the assurance of immortality, while he meditates his great theme, and touches and re- touches his artistic work, till it stands forth complete in the majestic beauty and perfection after which his soul has, for years, aspired. Universality of Feeling^ as the Actuating Principle of Expression, — In all the above and similar instances, the sympathetic feeling which thirsts for expression, and impels to the utterance or the recording of sentiment, is one and the same. It may assume the definiteness and the depth of a personal affection, or the intensity and the comparative excess of a passion, to whatever extent the instigation of feeling may CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVB FACULTIBSL 73 excite the sentient agent But it is still the same element of sensi- bility, on! J working in deeper channels, and with a stronger tide, and therefore doing its work more effectually and impressively. In what- ever form, it is still but an act of obedience to the law of his consti- tution, by which man, as a sympathetic being, is impelled to expres- sion, that he may attain to the power and the habit of communica- tion ; and thus fulfill the conditions of his social and moral nature. Influence cf Feeling on Moral Character^ as a Form of Expression, — The extent to which the element of feeling exerts its power over ex- pression, and the degree to which its development in this relation may be carried, under the influence of educational culture, can be appro- priately measured only when we trace it to its effects on the tenden- cies, the character, and the will of human beings individually, or in their aggregations in society. In either case, we see it in the gentle, the peaceful, and affectionate spirit of the genuine disciple of Him whom we reverence as the ^^ meek and the lowly ,'^ and in the genial intercourse of communities governed by the influence of His law of universal love ; or we read it in the arrogance, the violence, and the hatred, of which perverted humanity is so fatally capable. As " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," the prevalent emotions and expression, the manners, and the habitual language of man, in these opposite conditions of individual and social life, will depict themselves on character and action. V Influence of Feeling on the Character of Art, — In the visible lan- guage of graphic art, we read the same lesson of the power of feeling as an element of expression. We see it in the appalling force with which the sculptor has presented the agony of pain and struggle, in the writhing frame and contorted features of Laocoon, or the perfect placidity and repose with which he has invested the face and form of Antinous. Nor is the lesson less impressive when we turn from the superhuman fierceness of expression in iattitude and features, which characterizes the delineations of passion and penal torture, in some of the figures depicted by the hand of Angelo, to the serenity, the sanc- tity, and the unutterable loveliness, beaming from the half-divine forms in which innocence or holiness is pictured by the pencil of Raphael. Its power in Music, — The ear drinks in the same lesson of the power of empassioned expression, while it listens to the great masters of musical art, and feels the majesty of its utterance, as conceived in the soul of Handel, and worthily executed by the skillful hand of the ac- complished performer. From such effects of sublimity and force and solemn grandeur, down to the breathings of tenderness in a plaintive strain of pastoral melody, the thrill, responding to the stirring air of 74 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESMVB FACULTIES the soldier's inarch, or the wild gayety of the peasant's dance, we hare but the varied forms in which emotion evinces its sway over this most expressive of arts, by the inspiration which it breathes into its num- berless moods. Its Effect on Language, — To the emotive force of feeling, Lan- guage owes all its sublimest and most beautiful forms of cultivated utterance, whether in expressing the depth of affection or the intensity of passion ; and the remark is equally true of the literature of the elder world and that of modern times. In no record of humanity is the fact more strikingly exhibited than in the pages of the Sacred volume, where the heart of man is laid open in all its workings, in the primitive language of poetic imagination and Divine truth com- bined, and where the human soul pours itself forth in every mood ; now wondering at the vastness of the creation, or adoring the infinite majesty of the Creator ; now humbled to the dust, under the sense of man's insignificance, or, in the tones of contrition and penitence, im- ploring the boon of pardon ; uttering thanks for boundless goodness and mercy ; rejoicing in the conscious favor of God ; sympathizing in the gladness and beauty of nature ; touched by the paternal tender- ness and compassion of Jehovah, or joining in the denunciations of , '^ indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," threatened to his enemies. In all the uninspired delineations of thought which have come down to us from ancient times, it is the same pervading element of feeling which has given them their lasting life and their sway over the mind. To some prominent passages of this character we have already alluded ; and, for the present, the allusion must suffice. Nor have we time now to dwell on corresponding examples drawn from modem literature, the peculiar charm of which, in one word, is the power with which it calls forth the natural emotions of the heart. In every form which literature assumes, as a power or an influence over the soul, exerted through the medium of expressive language, the main spring of effect, the grand motive power, is feeling. The life of ex- pression, in all its cultivated forms of language or of art, is emotion. Feeling, under the Ghiidance of Education, — Recognizing the fact last mentioned, the intelligent superintendent of education will direct his endeavors to the due cherishing, strengthening, and developing, as well as to the moulding, guiding, and governing of this great ele- ment of intellectual and moral power. With his eye fixed on this momentous issue, he will watch the natural tendency and direction of the instinct whose action he is to guide, so as intelligently to co- operate with its spontaneous working, and aid in the accomplish- ments of its peculiar office. THE CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. 75 The teacher is, to a certain extent, or, at least, so far as he is a teacher of language, bound to furnish his pupil with the invaluable advantage resulting from a ready command of correct expression, one of the surest passports to usefulness and success in life. But the life-spark of expression can not be struck from a dull mind. The latent fire of feeling must be kindled, must be brought to the surfeoe, that it may glow in the living look and audible tone of emotion, or beam forth in the burning words of eloquence, whether flowing from tongue or pen. The judicious instructor will resort to every expe- dient suggested by the life and beauty of nature and of art, as sources of inspiration, whence corresponding life, and beauty, and expressive 'pow- er may be breathed into the soul of his pupil, and live in his utterance. in. The Tendency or Habit op Action, in the Expressive fac- ulties, AS IT IS Manifested in Utterance. Utterance an Instinct, — ^When we contemplate man as a being ca- pable of education, he may, for our immediate purpose, be regarded as furnished by his Creator, with what may be termed the apparatus of expression, in the gift of the various faculties which we have been hitherto considering. We perceive him further provided with an adequate motive power, by which this apparatus is propelled, in the involuntary or voluntary action of feeling. The indication next to be observed by the educator, as the suggestion for his guidance, in his endeavors to cooperate with Nature's tendency to development, is. In what direction does the action of the ej^pressive faculties nat- urally tend ? What, in this instance, is the instinct of spontaneity ? What, under the guidance of his own inward promptings, does the child incline to do or to become ? What habit or attribute of char- acter does he thus acquire ? The answer furnished by observation, in this case, plainly is, — Man, as a sentient, intellectual, and sympathizing being, acting under the primary impulse of instinct, and without any interference of human culture, obviously inclines to Utterance, (throw- ing himself out,) or, in other words, to self-revelation, as an ordained function of his nature, verifying and crowning his intelligence, and constituting him a social and moral being, capable of progress and of culture. He craves and finds expression, accordingly, in many and various forms : he makes himself felt and understood, in some way or other, by his fellows. Under the guidance of education, he but learns to do this more definitely and successfully, through lan- guage and expressive art. From a sentient and intelligent, he devel- ops thus into a communicative being, — the result, so far, of the com- bination of unconscious and voluntary education, and, at the same time, 76 CULTIVATION OP THE EXPRESSIVE PACULTIE8. the condition and the pledge of subsequent intellectual and moral progress. Repression a Common Error of Educational Training, — The at- tentive observation — not to say the systematic study — rof man, to which the educator and teacher should ever feel himself bound, as the only security for the intelligent and successful discharge of his duties, suggests, at this stage of our subject, the fact, that a prominent fea- ture of error, in the too prevalent arbitrary modes of education, has been the repression rather than the development of the natural desire of utterance in childhood. From the very first steps of his mental and moral progress, man is not a merely selfish and receptive being. He longs to impart his feelings, and to communicate his observations : he wishes to give, as well 2A to receive : he feels impelled to utter himself that he may impart and confer, not less than receive. His impulse, as a sympathetic one, is unselfish, generous, noble. When the child exclaims to his play- mate on the beauty of the flower which they see, he does not merely call for sympathy in the delight which he feels : he would, by his instinctive expression of pleasure, suggest and impart that delight. Utterance, under the benign guardianship of Nature, as its Author's interpreter, is thus, essentially and substantially, a moral process, not less than a merely sympathetic and intellectud one. Nor, in educa- tion, should it ever be forgotten that, by the Creator's ordination, every utterance of a feeling or an emotion, gives it additional strength and life ; and that, obeying the divinely instituted law of speech and communication, we are aiding in the process of building up, day by day, and hour by hour, the fabric of human character. Arbitrary education, however, is, in no feature of its meddling mismanagement more conspicuous than in the restriction^ the reserve^ and the silence^ which it is ever so prone to impose, and on which it is so apt to plume itself, with reference even to the very first stages of its repellent sway. The five years' probationary and preparatory silence which Pythag- oras is said to have exacted of his disciples, might be an excellent discipline for mature minds, as an introduction to the " metaphysic bog profound," into which he meant thereafter to plunge them. But one of the first and most urgent wants of childhood is utterance. The innocent little human being is ever thus holding out his petty link in the golden chain which binds heart to heart, mind to mind, and man to God : he is ever ready to join his link to that of his neighbor. But the mechanical educationist, with his " look at your book, and not at me !" frowns the infant volunteer back to his seat, CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIEa tjtj to his individuality, and his isolation ; and the chain by which the little petitioner for sympathy and knowledge, might have been lifted with the conjoined force of the mental world, is of no avail to him : his link of connection with it is yet detached. His turn has not yet come, in the great game of opportunity ; and he must bide his time as best he may. Appropriate Training, — Under the unerring and genial guidance of the mother, the child is not perpetually immured within doors, or confined to one spot, or fixed in one posture : he is allowed, occasion- ally, at least, to behold the outward world, to range the fields, to walk on the road, to observe the objects around him, to feel their at- tractive force, to admire their beauty, to wonder and to inquire about what is new to bira, to utter his exclamations of pleasure, to examine, and to name whatever strikes his attention. He thus enjoys his own nature in the free exercise of his faculties ; he is consciously progress- ive in intelligence and in speech, as in feeling, and, so far, is effectually and successfully preparing to become, in due season, eloquently ex- pressive. Disadvantages of City Education, — The worst, perhaps, of all the many evils attending the supposed necessity of congregating in cities, and adopting^ artificial modes of life, is one but little thought of. The parent who relinquishes his rural home in the open village street or in the field, flatters himself, perhaps, that he is securing better edu- cational advantages for his children, when he takes up his abode in one of the confined dwellings of the close-crowded city. He may find, by the exchange, a teacher more expert in turning the machin- ery of instruction, and a more ample supply of the learning to be had from books. But the nobler, the truly liberal part of his childrens' education, he has foregone forever. The free scope, the pure, bracing lur, the rich variety of nature, — the healthful influence of these on the growing frame and the expanding mind, on the susceptible heart, on the plastic imagination, on the whole soul and character ; these are sacrificed, and with them, the best capabilities of culture. Educational Benefits of Rural Life, — In no respect are the losses just mentioned gi'eater than in regard to the part of education which we are now contemplating. To the child reared in the freedom and the beauty of nature, everything around him becomes a language, expressing the happiness which he unconsciously enjoys. His vocab- ulary is furnished in the forms, the colors, the life, the sounds and mo- tion, amid which he finds himself. The half-conscious awe which he feels, under the deep shade and the sweeping boughs of the great elm, through which he looks up, with a pleasing dread and wonder tlQ CULTIVATION OF TBE EXPRESSIVE FACtJLTIEa to the over-arching sky, the beautiful wild-flower which waves and nods to him as he passes, the brook which runs bubbling and gur- gling through the meadow, the majesty of the flowing river, the roar- ing of the winter wind through the bare trees, the whirling of the snow-flakes, the glittering garment of the ice-storm, the opening of the spring buds, the fluttering of the summer leaves, andf the sailing of the falling leaf in autumn, the enlivening voices of the domestic animals, the entrancing music of the birds; — these, and a thousand other unpaid teachers, have all been training him in a language true, copious, perfect, and inspiring, — compared to which, book-learning is but as the dry husk to the rich nutritious grain. Genial Culture. — ^To favor and cherish, not to check, utterance — to elicit, not to repress expression, — to multiply, and deepen, and ex- pand, and fill, not to dry up, the sources and reservoirs of language ; — these are the true offices of education. The cultivation of the young mind, taking a suggestive hint from the cultivation of the young tree, should allow a liberal scope of nutrition, of growth and expansion, before calling in the aid of the pruning knife. A large part of early education should consist in conversation, in which the pupil should freely partake, as the natural means of acquiring accuracy and ex- pertness, as well as freedom, in expression. The tendency to write and to draw, should have full scope and ample encouragement. Care .should be taken to render interesting and attractive every form of exercise by which the student may ultimately attain to the free, for- cible, and correct expression of thought. To the various modes of securing such fruits of culture, in detail, we shall have occasion to advert in the sequel. IV. Kksult of the Action of the Expressive Faculties: — Communication. The Power of Communication, — In the previous stages of our present inquiries, we have been occupied with the classification of the powers of expression, their springs of action, and the habitual ten- dency and direction of their current, under the guidance of unassisted nature and of education. The next step in the progress of investiga- tion preliminary and introductory to the actual work of express cul- ture, is the consideration of the Results at which, vrhether by the law of natural development or that of educational cultivation, the human being arrives, in consequence of the exercise of his powers of expression. The immediate result of utterance is Communication, — the impar- tation and interchange of sympathy or sentiment, by which man in- spires his fellow man with the same feeling, aflection, emotion, passion, CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. 7^ thought, or sentiment, which actuates himself; and which, as the cir- cle of kindred minds is enlarged by the aggregation of numbers, ex- tends his personal mood or mental condition throughout the sphere of the community of which he is a member. Intellectual and Moral Effects of Communication, — ^The views, the will, and the power of an individual, acquire, through communi- cation, an ascendency, it may be, over a nation, or even over the whole civilized race, for successive ages ; while, on the other hand, the intellectual acquisitions, the moral and spiritual attainments, the sympathies and the accumulated resources of nations and of ages, may be brought to the aid of the individual, through the magic power of language. For good or for evil, man's power of communication with his fel- lows, gives to the aggregated multitudes of a whole people, or even of the race, the unity of purpose, the singleness of aim, the direct- ness, the personal eflBciency, the ease and the certainty of action of a single agent ; while it equally arms the individual with the intefllect- ual, the physical, and the moral force of millions. The sage, the orator, the poet, the artist, the statesman, the warrior, thus become the recognized representatives of a people or of mankind, to whom communities and nations bow in submission or in homage, and to whose ascendant genius they render the tribute of heart and band, of treasure, or of life. Thus, too, the youth, in his studious endeav- ors to advance his intellectual and moral condition, has the aid arising from the experience, the counsels, the guidance, and the sympathies of the intelligent and the virtuous of every age and nation which possesses an accessible record of its progress ; and the student whose days have been spent in strictest seclusion and unremitting investiga- tion, enjoys the assurance that the fruits of his solitary research and strenuous application shall be gathered not by himself alone, but by whatever enlightened and sympathizing minds, throughout the world, and in all subsequent time, shall come within his sphere of communication by living voice or written word. Value of Communication. — Communication, as the boon of lan- guage, is not to be measured by its immediate results merely, as a telegraphic convenience for the impartation of feeling or the convey- ance of thought, — ^great as its uses, in this relation, are to the whole race. Language is the vehicle of all knowledge. Like the noble ship, costly and valuable in itself, but yet more valuable in the treas- ure with which it is fraught, it comes laden with the accumulations of countless minds and boundless wealth. To measure its full value, we should have to compute the number and the worth of every 80 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. acquisition which the mind has garnered up in the records of every ^department of science and literature, and* thus rendered capable of conveyance 'from man to man, and from generation to generation, throughout the world. V. Educational Processes for the Cultivation of the Ex- pressive Faculties. These may be classed under the following heads: The Attentive Observation and the Love of Nature ; the Study and the Practice of Art ; the Study of Language ; the Practice of Exercises in Oral and Written Expression. Omissions and Defects in Modes ov Culture. — Language, — The plan of education generally adopted for the exercise and disci- pline of the expressive faculties, indicates little philosophical design, logical consistency, generous spirit, or liberal scope, in the course which it prescribes. It is founded on views too narrow and exclu- sive ; and its execution has been too mechanical. The mother^s and the teacher's eye has been fastened too exclusively on the facts of language alone, as so many detached points to be mastered in detail. Hence the injury sometimes done to the organs of speech, by prema- ture attempts to conquer some of the difficulties of articulation, in the mother's zeal for the precocious development of the faculties of her child; and hence, also, the mechanical and arbitrary processes of alphabetic training, in its customary forms. The eager desire for im- mediate definite results, has caused the teacher, too generally, to over- look the great facts that language is but one of the forms in which the expressive faculties are exerted, or in which expressive power is to be developed, and that the successful cultivation of language is in- separable from due exercise in all the kindred forms of expression to which the mind naturally tends. The general plan of education is limited to instruction and prac- tice in the oral and written forms of language, in the school rou- tine of reading and grammar^ and what is termed composition. The forms of exercise and the methods of training, also, in these de- partments of education, have too generally been literal and mechan- ical ; and the poverty and imperfection of the results have betrayed the defects of the plan which prescribed them. Methods too exclusively Passive and Receptive, — ^The great im- portance of a full and generous development of the whole mental con- stitution, as indispensable to the right action of any of its elements, having been overlooked in the plan of education, due allowance has too seldom been made, in the training of the mind, for the adequate exercise and discipline of the active nature and of the expressive culuvation of the bxfbs88ivb facultes. si powers of the human being. The general prescription of the po- cesses of instruction, has evidently been directed to the receptive ac- tion of the understanding and the impleting of the memory. The mind of the pupil has been too uniformly kept in a comparatively passive condition. He has not been permitted and invited to use suf- ficiently even those materials of expression which he has, from the earliest steps of his progress, in the routine of education, been so laboriously employed in accumulating. Expression, neglected in early training, becomes difficult in later stages ; and conscious failure incurred in attempting it, renders it distasteful. Effort, under such circumstances, is- reluctantly made, frequently intermitted, and ere long discontinued. Neglect of our own Language, — No remark is more common or more true, than that even our highest and best courses of cul- ture do not result in furnishing accomplished men, as regards the actual use, in speech or writing, of our own language. Ample time, comparatively, is usually allowed for the study of the ancient lan- guages, and even for that of some of the modern ; but little is ex- pressly assigned for the thorough acquisition of our own, which, to ensure to the student a perfect command of it, should be the ground- work of daily exercises, thoughtfully planned and carefully executed* from the fir^ steps in education onward to the last day of professional preparation for the business of life. Faults of Unconscious Teaching. — Some of the many causes of imperfect teaching, in the department of language, may be found in the fact, that the true nature and actual character of early training are not recognized by those whose office it is to superintend the first steps of childhood in the path of development. The mother and the primary teacher too often overlook the vast influence of example^ which, to the imitative nature of childhood, always becomes a model. Hence the imperfect articulation, incorrect pronunciation, mechanical monotony, and lifeless tone, which are so generally prevalent in school reading. These faults are, too often, faithful copies of the style which the ear of the young learner has unconsciously caught from his mother, his teacher, or his class-mates, and which habit rivets on his voice, for life. Error in Alphabetic Instruction. — The mechanical manner in which the child's first lessons in reading are sometimes conducted, is another cause of failure, in the department of instruction to which we now refer. In many schools, the young pupil never has his at- tention called, definitely or consciously, to the fact that the letters of the alphabet are phonetic characters, the whole value of which con- IF 82 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. • gists in the sounds which they represent : in many, he rosy pass through the whole course of instruction without being once called to practice the constituent elementary sounds of his own language : in very many, there is no attempt made to exercise and develop, modify, or cultivate, in any form, the voice itself. Hence the prevalence of the errors which have been already mentioned as fruits of uncon- scious imitation, and which careful, early cultivation can alone pre- vent. Neglect of the Meaning of Words, — An obvious defect in preva- lent modes of education, as regards adequate preparation for the free and correct use of our native language, is the yet too common neg- lect of early and progressive etymological training in the analysis of words, and the tracing of the significant value of their component syllables, so as to ascertain and fix in the mind their exact meaning and full power, and to follow their transitions from a primary to a secondary sense, or from one which is figurative and ima^native to one which is purely intellectual or merely practical. It is such inti- mate knowledge, and such only, — the fruit of daily exercise and careful training, — that can give, at length, to the mature scholar, or the pro- fessional speaker, that mastery of words, which now so often, when almost too late, he feels that he needs for the full and perfect express- ion of his thoughts. Defective Forn^ of Reading Exercises, — A common and marked failure of education, as regards the course of instruction in reading, is partly attributable to the cause last mentioned, — the unintelligent enunciation of words, — but largely, also, to the mechanical perusal and unmeaning pronunciation of sentences, as merely so many successions of audible sounds. Such exercises deaden rather than enliven the powers of expression, as they blunt rather than sharpen the understanding, for the intelligent conception of meaning. Yet, in not a few schools is it the fact, that even quite young pupils are never asked, in performing a reading exercise, to point out, previous to the pronouncing of a sen- tence, those words in it which are most significant or expressive, and accordingly require that special force or turn of utterance, which alone can render them emphutic, bo as to convey their full sense, or bring out the whole sentiment which the sentence was framed to ex- press. A similar neglect is too prevalent as regards the effect of proper pauses in reading, which should always suggest to the ear. an intelligent analysis of a sentence into its constituent portions of sense, not, as is very frequently the case, a mechanical analysis, servilely following the grammatical punctuation with measured uniformity of utterance, whatever be the depth of thought, or the force of feeling, CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. $3 implied in the language of the compositioQ. As the syntactical punc- tuation, although it may often coincide with the expressive and signifi- cant rhetorical pausing, does not necessarily do so, but, on the con- trary, is sometimes directly at variaDce with it, the effect of uniformly following the points, must, in such cases, be a positive hindrance rath- er than a help to intelligible or appropriate reading, as an exercise of voice. The utterance of the common phrases, " Yes, sir," or " No, sir," will furnish sufficient illustration here. The comma preceding the word ** sir," is due to the eye, on the score of syntax, but not to the ear or the voice, on that of sense. It is in the audible reading of poetry y however, that the defects of current education are most strikingly exhibited, as regards the disci- pline of the expressive Acuities. Poetry, as the language of imag- ination and feeling, speaking to the heart, properly requires a mode of reading obviously quite different from that of the usual forms of plain didactic prose, addressed to the understanding merely. The word-pictures of the poet paint their imagery on the imagination ; the intellect interprets their forms ; the heart beats in response to the graphic delineation ; and the voice gives expression to a correspon* dent melody of tone, while it utters the words of the verse. To read poetry aright, therefore, implies the poet^s inspiration, imparted to* the soul and voice of the reader, — ^an exalted state of imagjnatioQy a sympathetic vividness of feeling, unconscious quickness and acuteness of intellectual conception, a plastic voice and expressive tone. An appropriate course of preparatory discipline of feeling and imagina- tion, is obviously, then, as indispensable to poetic utterance, as the right understanding of the intellectual sense of a sentence, is to the ordinary reading of prose. For this purpose, every grand or beauti- ful form of nature or of expressive art to which he can resort, with a view to give susceptibility to feeling and imagination or pleasure to taste, now becomes, in the hands of the intelligent teacher, an instru- ment of power, to aid him in the processes of culture. Now is the time when he feels how deeply he must ever be indebted to the vivi- fpng influence of music, painting, and sculpture, and every chaste form of decorative art, as the effective means of opening the eye of the soul to the vision of grandeur or of beauty, firing the heart with the ardor of inspiration, touching it with the sense of tenderness and love, and refining the taste by the display of true elegance and grace. The dry, prosaic, lifeless style in which poetry is too generally read in our schools, is more injurious than beneficial, not merely to the fac- ulties more immediately concerned in the conception or utterance of 84 OULTfYATION OF THB EXPRESSIVE FACULTIBa poetic composition, but to the action and influence of all those pow* ers, mental and moral, which tend to elevate and refine the soul, and mould the character to the highest forms of excellence. There is something akin to the barrenness of spirit with which the sceptic pe- ruses a page of sacred scripture, in the utterly mechanical manner in which the well-drilled pupil in mathematics or in grammar, is some- times permitted to read strains of the purest poetry, embodying the sublimest sentiments, and calling for tones of the deepest and most vivid emotion, or even of the most exalted passion. The general neglect of appropriate means for cherishing sensibility and cultivating taste, in the relation now referred to, is the more to be regretted that it prevails most in that form of education and in that class of schools in which it tells with the deepest effect : — ^I refer to our common modes of mental cultivation, and to those seminaries in which the mass of our people are trained. The recuperative influ- ences of classical culture, in our higher literary institutions, does something to redeem, in this respect, the omissions and the defects of earlier training. But it is much to be feared that, even in our boast- ed New England education, as generally conducted, the young who are to receive no such remedial aid for disproportioned and defective cultivation, close their school course without the benefit of a single effort, on the part of instructors, to render their pupils capable of ap- preciating or expressing the sentiments embodied in the best passages of our own literature and that of the parent land, — a literature which or or bad art, or that any speck of it is not a positive blemish ; that the elements of art can be taught by an incompetent teacher; and that, after having taste thus perverted, the pupil can rally, acquire new principles, and form new habits. The actual experience of most pupils thus misdi- rected, is the painful conviction that, without a perfect command of elements, nothing whatever can be done in art, and that every neg- lected false line or touch, in rudimental lessons, is sure to injure the habits of eye and hand, in all subsequent execution, besides lowering the standard of excellence, and degrading the taste of the student. Music : Singing, — An error similar to that just mentioned, pre- vails with regard to instruction and practice in music, — more partic- I 02 CULTIVATION OF TBE EXPREflBIVE FACULTIB& ularly, in instrumeDtal music. The vocal department, however, is not without its many evils of erroneous conception and faulty instruc- tion. Singing, by the formal manner in which it is sometimes taught, becomes one of the listless tasks which the ju?enile pupil is com- pelled to perform in the routine of school duty, instead of being one of the natural enjoyments and welcome recreations of daily life, in which intellectual activity is accompanied by pleasing emotion and free expression. The young learner, who should be permitted to enter at once on the pleasure of listening to pure and perfect strains of actual music, and then to join in the attempt to execute them, in the natural training of ear and voice, is commonly detained for a long course of drilling on technical terms and arbitrary rules. Music is thus rendered a tasteless, irksome, artificial exercise to the pupil j and fails of accomplishing its main objects of quickening the ear, enlivening the feelings, moulding the voice, and cultivating the taste, by the in- fluence of pure and beautiful examples, of vocal sound, in the express- ion of feeling and sentiment Demoralizing Influence of Low Taste, — The result is still more injurious when low taste is permitted to obtrude its degrading influ- ences on the sacred sphere of music ; when song is treated as merely a form of amusement or of sport, and when the corrupting eflects of gross humor and ridiculous caricature, are intentionally introduced in the lessons of an art designed to purify and elevate the soul. When to such influences there is added the express utterance of degrading and demoralizing sentiment, in the words of a piece of music selected for a school exercise, the work of the enemy who sows tares in the field, is fully accomplished ; and education lends its hand to the act of helping the young mind not upward but positively downward. Deficient and Faulty Instruction, — ^When the grosser evils which have been mentioned, are avoided, there are not unfrequently others, quite seri6us in effect, arising from the influence of imperfect cultiva- tion and false taste in the teacher, or in the conimunity of which the pupil is a member. Inaccurate, slovenly, and heedless execution de- feats all the purpo&es of musical cultivation, and renders the absence of culture preferable to the possession of it. Every repetition of a fftult confirms an error of perception, a perversion of feeling, or a cor- ruption of taste, and deepens it into a vice of habit and a defect in mental character. Instrumental Music, — ^The more laborious forms of culture which are indispensable to success in the performance of instrumental mu- sic, strike yet deeper into the taste and tendencies of the mind, as regards the character and eflects of expression. Faults in this CULlTVATIOlf OP THE EXPRESSItB FACULTlEa 93 department of musical instrnction, are, it is true, not so widely diffused as those which are so often displayed in the teaching of vocal music. But they are not less prejudicial to the pupil individually. The in- cessant and arduous application which is required of all who wish to perform successfully on any instrun^ent, exhausts and discourages pupils who have not a true and deep love of music, together with the enduring physical vigor and muscular power which consummate exe- cution demands. The attempt to continue practice, under such dis- advantages, is more injurious than beneficial ; and when the pupil is dragged through the daily infliction, the whole course ends in that miserable failure over whose multitude of sins the false charity of society is so often called to throw its mantle. In music, as in every other form of expressive art, no culture is greatly to be preferred to that which entails error and imperfection. False Models, — ^The evils of defective cultivation are not less con- spicuous when the pupil possesses both taste and diligence and good ability, but is misled in style, by the influence of a false model in instruction. Of late years, the facility of obtaining instruction of the best order, is greatly increased. But a fatal error is still quite cur- rent among parents, that elementary lessons do not require a high standard of perfection in the teacher, and that therefore the rudiments of music may be acquired under any supervision. In this way, vast numbers of pupils are rendered imperfect performers, for life, by ^Tong habits acquired in the earliest stages of instruction and prac tice, — habits which no subsequent reformatory training is capable of correcting. Means op correctinq prevalent Errors in tub Cultivation OF THE Expressive Faculties. Remedial Effects of Good Instruction, — ^The remedy for existing evils in this as in other departments of education, lies partly, it must be acknowledged, with parents and the official guardians of public instruction ; and some of the evils adverted to are confessedly beyond the sphere of the teacher^s action. Still, in the actual business of teaching, even under all the impediments arising from false viewa of education and false plans of established procedure in instruction, much may be effected in the way of beneficial reformation, by intel- ligent and judicious measures on the part of the teacher, in his mode of conducting the daily lessons and exercises in those branches of instruction which are recognized and demanded by general opinion or by legislative enactment. Examples, — Referring to the utterly deficient provision which the \ 94 CULTIVATION OF TBI SXPRB8SIVE FACULTIEB. general plan of current education makes for the cultivation and devel- opment of tlie perceptive faculties, an enterprising and vigilant teacher will find no difficulty in inducing his pupils to take a short walk with him, for a few minutes daily, at a suitable season of the year, with a view to a little familiar conversation with them about the form and character of a plant, — even though but a weed on the road-side. The conversation can be easily so managed as to lead to the attentive observation and close examination of every part of the plant, as des- ignated, first, by the name in ordinary use, and, afterward, if conven- ient, by the more exact term of scientific nomenclature. A micro- scope, such as may be easily obtained for a few dollars, will be an infallible attraction to observation and inspection, in such excursions, and will prove a most efficient assistant teacher. Curiosity, and won- der, and inquiry, once excited in this way, will cause the young mind* to drink in, with delight, every item of information which falls from the lips of the teacher. Actual knowledge will thus be obtained, and its pleasure consciously felt Feeling and emotion, the main springs of expression, are now brought ifito play ; imagination is awakened, and, under the guidance of intelligence, will recognize the traces of beauty and skill in the handiwork of Nature. To record, in writing, what the eye has seen, and the ear heard, and the mind conceived, during such a lesson, will be no hardship of Egyptian task-work, but a pleasure and a privilege. Many a faithful teacher in our New England States, has, in this way, — without waiting for an educational millennium, in which botany, composition, and natural theology shall all be introduced into our common schools, by legislative authority, — "taken the responsibility," personally, and given an excellent eleraent- arv lesson in all three. First Lessons in Spelling and Beading, — ^The unphilosophical and arbitrary manner in which many branches of education are actually taught, admits obviously of a remedy at the teacher^s will. There is no necessity of blindly following the practice of making the child commit to memory the names of all the letters of the alphabet before he is asked to join the sounds of two, so as to read the words he or me. There is abundance of rhyme, but very little reason, in making the child read a whole column of rarely occurring and even of unin- telligible words, because they all happen to have the same or similar combination of letters ; while his bright eyes would sparkle with in telligence and delight, to see, in the column, a single word whose familiar sound would soon render its face as familiar. To the young learner in the primer, the spelling-book, or the school dictionary, the whole volume arranges itself in three classes of words : (1 ,) those CULTIVATION OF THE EXPEESSIVE FACULTIES. 95 which children of his age understand and use ; (2,) those which they understand^ when they hear them from the lips of older children or of adults, but which they do not use themselves ; (3,) those which they neither use nor understand, but which with the aid of teacher and book, they are, in due season, to learn to understand and use aright. To follow the true order of teaching, in such circumstances, will cost the teacher no more trouble than the simple act of dotting with the pencil point, on the column of the given page of the pupiPs book, those words which he finds adapted to the class-lesson of the hour, according to the intelligence and advancement of his scholars. Phonetic and Empirical Methods, — Another expedient for the re- moval of impediments to successful elementary instruction, and one which the teacher can easily adopt, after having made the selection of words, as suggested above, would consist in the subdivision of each of the classes mentioned into analogous and anomalous sub- classes. All the words of the first class, for example, — those which are familiar to the child's ear and mind, by daily personal use, — are either regular or irregular, as to the combination of their letters in name and sound. The former of these sub-classes may be easily learned by the process of spelling them by the sounds of the letters which c6mpose the words. Thus, in the word " page," the names of the first three letters very readily suggest their sounds, the combina- tion of which constitutes the reading of the word. But not so with the word "gag," in which not one of all the letters suggests its own sound by the name given to it. By the principle of analogy, there- fore, all words in which the name of the letter prompts the sound to the ear, may be advantageously taught by the phonetic method of merely articulating the sounds of the letters successively. The sim- plicity of this method enables children to make rapid progress in syl- labication and in reading ; and on the principle of allowing children the pleasure of helping themselves forward in an intelligent, conscious progress, this part of early training should never be neglected. But, even in those words which are familiar, in sense and in use, to the ears and minds of young children, there are very many in which there is little or no analogy between the names of the letters and the sounds which they receive in the pronunciation of a word or the enunciation of a syllable. The orthography of such words is no relia- ble guide to their orthoepy. To name their component letters, there- fore, can effect nothing further than to satisfy the teacher that the eye of the child has taken in every letter of the word before him. So far well. But, after all, the child's eye actually learns to take in such words by the letters in mass, and depends on an arbitrary effort 96 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. of memory, in pronouncing them. The sooner, therefore, that the little learner acquires the habit of reading such words at sight, with- out puzzling himself with the confusion arising from the discrepancy between the names and the sounds of their component letters, the more easy and the more sure will be his progress. Each of these methods of teaching, in the elementary processes of spelling and reading, is good for its own purpose ; — the phonetic for ' the analogies of orthoepy, and the empirical, as it may be called, for its anomalies. But the error in teaching has been the indiscriminate and exclusive use of the one or the other ; in consequence of which, the learner^s progress has been rendered unnecessarily difficult and tedious. The inherent difficulties of a language so irregular as the English, render the closest attention, on the part of the teacher, to every means of overcoming them, doubly important in early training. Orthoepy, — In this branch of instruction everything depends on the living teacher,— on the correctness of his own exemplifications and the diligence of his endeavors. Indeed, there is, commonly, no reason, but neglect on the part of the instnictor, why every child at school is not daily and thoroughly trained in the exact articulation of all the elementary sounds of the English language, and in the dis- tinct enunciation of their principal radical combinations; nor any other reason why an obsolete, awkward, or inappropriate manner of pronouncing common words should b^ tolerated in any stage of education. " School Reading^ — ^A similar remark may be made, as regards the unmeaning and inexpressive style of reading, which is so current, not only in schools, but in higher seminaries and professional exer- cises. This fault, so commonly remarked, would not exist at any stage of education, or in any form of life, private or public, if our primary teachers were only attentive to accustom their pupils, in their/ very first exercises in the reading of sentences, to repeat them care- fully, with a view to the expression of sense and not the mere pronoun- cing of words. Academic Elocution, — ^This department of instruction is another in. which the appropriate cultivation of the expressive faculties is not dependent on any change in the prescribed forms of education, so much as on the personal endeavors of the teacher. Our public speak- ers would not so generally utter their words in the formal tones of arbitrary pulpit style, were teachers duly attentive to point out to young academic declaimers the natural and appropriate vocal express- ion of feeling and sentiment; nor should we ever see those frenzied extravagances of passion and grotesque gesticulation, which so fre- CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. 9^ quently degrade the style of popular oratory, were teachers careful to cultivate, in academic declamation, purity of taste, and true force of effect, in the utterance of emotion. Grammatical Instruction. — ^Even in the teaching of prammar, where less scope, perhaps, is given to the discretion of the teacher, it still depends on himself whether he shall follow the precise order of topics in an ill-arranged text-book, or use his own judgment, and present the subject to the minds of his pupils in the order which he feels that an intelligent and practical study of the subject, and a ra- tional progress in its application, demand. Nothing lies more prop- erly within the province of the teacher, than the duty of seeing to it that his pupils thoroughly understand every word of their various lessons, and thus reap the benefit of grammar, in the perfect inter- pretation and right use of the current words of their own communi- cations by speech and writing, and in the perusal of the useful pro- ductions of the press. The faithful use of an etymological spelling- book, and of the dictionary, is all the cost of an aid so valuable to the teacher, and of an attainment so valuable to the pupil. Practical Rhetoric : School Exercises. — Training in the appropriate use of the English language, ought not to be limited to the mere grammatical exercise of composing sentences. Even in our common schools, it should extend to that cultivation of taste bv which neat as well as correct expression is acquired as a habit. To cultivate, in his pupils, the power of appreciating excellence in language, it is not necessary that the teacher should refer them to a systematic treatise on rhetoric. The school reading book usually furnishes abundance of the best materials for culture, in the presentation of the best modes of composition, as exemplified in the language of the pieces pre- scribed as reading lessons. The very best training for the acquisition of sound judgment and good taste in expression, may easily be had, if the teacher will but secure the intelligent and voluntary action of his pupils, in frequently analysing portions of some of the best of such passages, in occasionally transcribing them, and even committing them to memory. The exercise of careful transcription, is, perhaps, the best practical expedient that can be found for securing that literal and mechanical correctness in the details of the written forms of lan- guage, as to orthography and punctuation, which though, indeed, but minor matters, are yet so important, as indispensable to the decencies and proprieties of style. How ineffectual, for such purposes, the common routine of education proves, none can know but persons whose business brings them into extensive observation of such par- . ticulars. - p 98 CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. Bketorieal Exercises in higher Seminaries, — ^To remedy the evils arising fram the narrow and artificial character of our higher forms of rhetorical culture, we need a wider scope of discipline not only in rhetoric itself, but in logic, and in the principles of taste as embodied in the aesthetics of every form of expressive art. We need, yet more, however, a special course of practical training, for which the rhetori- cal teacher ought justly to be held responsible, — a course which should consist in the careful and close analysis of distinguished mod- els of successful composition, so as to trace their order and method in the arrangement of thought, the artistic character of their aesthetic light and shade and coloring, the mechanism of ihoir sentential struc- ture, and the aptness of their verbal expression in detail. A long and rigorous course of disciplinary exercise in such forms, would not only furnish the pen of the ready writer for the varied demands of actual life, but the requisite preparatory training for the office of pub- lic speaking, in which a ready command of well digested thought and fit expression is so important to successful effort. The student would, by such training, effectually learn the value of clear consecu- tive thinking, of genuine taste, of manly plainness of diction and simplicity of expression : he would be thoroughly secured from fall- ing into the " bald, disjointed chat," the pompous harangue, the insane extravagance of emotion, and the fantastic verbiage, which are so often palmed on our popular assemblies, and lauded in our transient vehicles of criticism, as wonderful displays of original genius or orator- ical power. The Study of Language, — One very important aid to the gene- rous culture and full development of the expressive faculties, is, as yet, very imperfectly furnished by our higher forms of liberal education. While the study of the ancient languages is formally acknowledged as one of the most efficacious methods of training the mind to a dis- tinct perception of whatever constitutes power or perfection of ex- pression ; and while liberal provision of time Snd means is carefully made, with a view to secure the full benefit to be derived from the contemplation and analytical examination of these fjiultless. models; too little attention is paid to the invaluable advantages which might be gained from a corresponding rigor of study and analysis, directed to the great authors who constitute the classics of modern literature, in foreign languages, and in our own. The perfunctory perusal and verbal recitation of a few passages from such authors, which usually form a part of academic exercises, in this department of education, can never be seriously proposed as effecting the purposes of critical appreciation and thorough discipline. CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRES8IVE FACULTIES. Q^ In our highest seminaries, little is attempted beyond the processes of grammatical analysis and interpretation, in a course of literal and mechanical routine, even \?ith regard to the ancient classics ; a mere modicum of the same species of attention is usually given to the very noblest writers of Germany, France or Italy. The Spanish and the Portuguese languages are given up, for the most part, to those per- sons who happen to have occasion for the use of them, as a conven- ience in mercantile operations. The languages of the North of Europe, whose ancestral affinities with the English render them so richly instructive, as regards the full and true understanding and expert use of the most significant and expressive part of our own native lan- guage ; — these, as yet, are left to an adventurous few, comparatively, — the solitary explorers and pioneers in the study of modern literature. America, in its peculiar national position, which brings to its open homes men of all countries and of every tongue, possessei un- equaled facilities for the extensive acquisition of all the benefits resulting from the study of language in its various forms ; and a wide range of advantages, in this relation of culture, should be justly held as the birthright of our children, and as the characteristic distinction of our educated youth and mature scholars. Not that we would have American teachers pureue the course, which is unfortunately yet too common, of giving a superficial attention, for a few months, or a few weeks, perhaps, to one or more of the languages of modern Europe, and then attempting the task of teaching them. But, gen- erally speaking, American teachers who wish to enjoy the advan- tage of teaching more intelligently and efiectually their native lan- guage, in consequence of the opportunity of better understanding its character, by their ability to compare it with others, — an advantage beyond price ; — most, if not all, of such teachers have easy resort to a living instructor in whatever language they desire to study, and may, in due time, become possessed in this way, of a vast amount of intel- lectual wealth, the benefit of which is sure to be felt, not only in their own mental action, but in the attainments of their pupils. In the department of language, however, there is no acquirement of which teachers and pupils stand in more urgent need than that of a perfect command of correct, clear, strong, expressive English. The attention paid to this most important attainment is, as yet, utterly in- adequate to the demands of a generous cultivation or those of actual life and its daily duties. Nothing is more common than this humilia- ting admission. Yet little is done to do away with the necessity for it. We have, it is true, of late years, made some advances toward a lOQ CULTIVATION OF THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. better state of things, in our educational provision of better, modes of teaching grammar, synthetically as well as analytically ; and, in some schools, the practical study of etymology receives a commendable degree of attention. Yet it is rare to find in any seminary that thorough analytical investigation of the words of our language which every student is expected to exemplify in his exercises on a page of the ancient classics. The study of English words, if faithfully pursued in the daily les- sons of our schools, with any thing like the application exhibited in the examination, and classifying, and arranging, and labeling of the specimens of even a very ordinary cabinet, would enrich the intel- lectual stores of the young and even of the mature mind, to an ex- tent of which we can, at present, hardly form a conception. Nothing, however, short of such diligence will serve any effectual purpose. The l&tudent of his own vernacular tongue must be content to employ the same close, minute inspection, the same careful examination, the same correct ^designation, the same exact location and scrupulous con- servation of every word that he would intelligently appreciate or skillfully use, as the mineralogist adopts in the selection and arrange- ment of his specimens. Our prevalent modes of education have been so defective, as re- gards the means or opportunities of acquiring a proper knowledge of the English language, that the humble attainment of perfect orthogra- phy is comparatively rare, even among the "liberally" educated. Few students, even in our higher seminaries of learning, are trained to recognize and appreciate the value of an English root or primitive word, to trace a secondary to a primary sense, or a primary to its secondary, to translate a passage of Latinized English into its Saxon equivalent words of the mother- tongue, to draw the line of discrimina- tion between present and obsolete usage in expression, to detect the nice shades of meaning in words regarded as synonymous, — to use, in fact, their own language expertly. It is universally admitted that no language needs such processes to be applied to it so much as our own. Its vast copiousness, in conse- quence of its many sources, the conflicting character of these them- selves, the comparatively small number of English writere who have been willing to take the pains to write correctly, so far as to merit the name of models, the contradictory usage which has, from this cause, prevailed, even among distinguished authors — all have conspired to render careful study and extensive practice indispensable to the stu- dent who would do justice to the great language which it is his birth- right to inherit, for all of life's best purposes. CDLTIYATION OF THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES. Introductory Observations. — In the preceding lectures of this series, we were occupied with the consideration of the perceptive and the expressive faculties, with a view to the plan and purposes of education. Following the historical order of development in the dif- ferent classes in which the mental powers may, for such purposes, be grouped, we enter now on the study of the various modes of intellect- ual action which may be classed under the denomination of Reflective Faculties. Here we are met anew by a diflSculty inherent in our native lan- guage, in the paucity and indefiniteness of the terms which it employs to designate the phenomena of mind. The vagueness of the phrase " reflective faculties," is a serious impediment to clearness and dis- tinctness of conception, as regards any attempt at exact definition or satisfactorv classification of intellectual acts or conditions. The term " reflective," however, if we resort once more to the serviceable aid of etymology, as a key to the interpretation of language, will prove strikingly suggestive of meaning ; and, by its figurative force and pe- culiar significance, will atone, to some extent, for its deficiency in philosophic precision. The term " perceptive," (literally, taking through^) suggests the in- tellectual condition in which the mind is in the act of taking^ receiv- ing, or forming, ideas through the medium of the senses. The term "expression" implies a state in which the mind is undergoing a process of pressing^ or being pressed^ from within outward. But the term " reflection," (bending back,) suggests, figuratively, that state or act of the mind in which it reflects, repeats, or gives back, inwardly^ the images impressed upon itself, — the eflfects of which It is conscious, — whether produced from without or from within, whether occasioned by perception, imagination, conception, or emotion. In this condition is is implied that attention turns inward, and dwells, more or less consciously, on its internal subjects, rather than on the objects by which tKey may have been occasioned. 102 CULTITATIOfC OP THE EBFLECTTIVB FACULTIB& The hifttoiy, — so to term it^ — of intellectiul action implied in the application of the word '^ reflective," represents the mind, as in the act of going forth from its inner self^ meeting the forms of the external world, and, by the impression which these produce upon it, ^reflecting,'' (turning back or inward,) upon itself^ to contemplate and deliberately consider what it there consciously beholds. Nor does the term lose aught of its significance, when it is applied to the inward action of the mind on the phenomena of its own consciousness, when the forms of imagination, or even of pure thought itself, become so forcible as to attract and absorb the attention. The figurative word then represents the mind as turning back upon itself, to look inward, 80 as to ascertain and define, or consider more fully, the objects of its own creation, and to follow the trains of thought which these suggest. In either of the supposed cases, — whether the objective or the sub- jective world furnish the data of thought, — ^the result is an ultimate inward movement, which, although it may, in given instances, lead to the anticipation of external action, as a consequence, is, so far, a purely mental condition, sanctioning the popular usage which applies the term *' reflection " to all modes of intellectual action which are of a strictly internal character. Recognizing this fact of language, and pursuing our analysis of the human faculties as subjects of disciplinary culture, we now, therefore, change our field of observation, and pass from the outward spheres of perceptive observation and expressive communication to the silent, in- ner, invisible, spiritual, and purely intellectual region of Thought. We now contemplate roan as made in the image of his Maker, as an intelligent and rational being ; and we trace the working of those powers which ally him to " things unseen and eternal." Following, as before, the method of observing (1,) the forms of mental action grouped under a given classification ; (2,) their actua- ting principle^ or motive force ; (3,) their natural and habitual tendency; (4,) the results of their action ; and (5,) the educational processes consequently required for their development and discipline, we proceed to a summary (I.) Enumeration op the Reflecttve Faculties. Memory, Conception, Consciousness, Reason, Understanding, Judg- ment, Explanatory Remark. — ^This classification is presented not as one philosophically complete or exhaustive, but merely as a suggestive out- line, for educational purposes. It is intentionally limited to the chief of those forms of mental action which may be regarded as acts or powers not only strictly interior, but purely intellectvalj as contradis- CULTIVATION OF THE RBrUSCmrB FAOOLttffiK JOd tiDguished from those which are concerned with the external objects and facts oi perception^ from those which consist in inward or outward movements oi feeling^ and from those which are conversant with the ideal forms apd creations of the imagination. A more extensive clas* sification, including the subdivisions and subordinate details of reflec* tive intellectiob, will necessarily present itself at a later stage of our analysis, when we come to the consideration of the various forms of exercise to which this group of faculties is subjected in the processes of education. (1.) Memory: the Basis of Beflective Power, — This faculty nat- urally claims our first attention, when we contemplate man as a being endowed with the power of reflective intelligence. It is this faculty which enables him to take the first step from the exterior and object- ive world into the interior and subjective. Its exercise empowers him, even in the absence of the objects of sense, to retain or to recall, for indefinite periods, and at indefinite intervals, the ideas which he de- rived from them. He can thus, at pleasure, dispense with the actual presence of external objects, and yet, by dwelling on them mentally, after he has withdrawn from them outwardly, pursue the trains of thought to which they give rise. As a result, he thus acquires a more intimate knowledge of their relations to his own interior being, and converts the pabulum of intelligence, furnished in the data of the out- ward world, into the pure elements of intellectual sustenance. The activity of this power is, in fact, the measure of his growth in mental stature and strength. It is the condition of all intelligent pro- gress, whether we regard memory as the grand receptacle and deposi- tory of all those elements of knowledge which are at once the rudi- ments of intellectual life, the springs mental of action, and the material of thought, or as the chain which links the past to the present, and retains every acquisition as a foothold for the next step forward in the processes of reason and the investigation of truth. Remembrance, — The faculty of memory, even in its comparatively passive and quiescent form of mere retention, or remembrance^ gives man the power of holding with a firm grasp all the treasures which observation enables him to accumulate from without, and to carry them with him into that internal region of thought where they are to be assimilated to his own mental being, and become component parts of it, in transfigured forms of living power and beauty. Not only so : but even the involuntary susceptibility of this vast capacity preserves in the mind the imprint of every passing thought, every form of imagination, and every mood of feeling, which has character enough to excite his attention and recall him to himself, in the exercise of consciousness and reflection. 104 CULTIVATION OF THE RBFLECTIVB FACULTIB8. Intellectual and Moral Ojffiees of Memory. — ^This benign retentiye power gives unity to man's intellectual and moral life. It is the sure and steadfast anchor by which he grapples the present to the past, and is saved from the fluctuation and fragmentary tossing of *^the ig- norant present.'* In the wide field of culture, memory makes the mind the seed plot and garden ground of all the knowledge which human care and kindness have the skill or the power to drop into it. Fertilized by the genial influences of well directed education, the retentive ca- pacity of memory becomes rich in every precious and noble product of mind by which the intellectual life of the world is nourished and sustained. But it is as an element of intellectual and moral power in human chartu:tery that this faculty reveals its chief value. Its very nature and tendency is to constitute man a reflective being, by withdrawing him from the influence of a too exclusive regard to the present and the external ; by soliciting his attention to the profoundest verities of his own intelligent and immortal being ; and by balancing the stern real- ities of experience against the sometimes fallacious solicitations of hope, or the grave actualities of the past against the doubtful promises of the future. It prompts to thought, and leads to security amidst uncertainty and distraction. It invites to reflective meditation, . by the suggestive materials in which it abounds. It cherishes content plation, by opening to the mind^s eye the long vista of the past with its fast-linked trains of scene and incident and action, and the inef- faceable impressions which all these have graven upon the heart. It tends to make man a considerate and thoughtful being, by the faith- ful monitions which it furnishes to the lips of wisdom warning against the errors of judgment or of will, by reminding of their penalties formerly incurred. Eemembrance saves from the domineering ascendency and absorb- ing attractions of the sensuous and the transient, by intermingling with the fluidity and evanescence of the present the solidity and perma- nence of the past. It thus tends to give gravity and weight to char- acter ; and if its influence is sometimes a shade too sombre for gayety, it contributes a not undesirable element to the sternness of manhood, as a safeguard to the firmness of will. Its office is, in this respect, a preventive one, — to save man from the instability which the exclusive influence of things present and things outward might induce ; and, by attracting him inward to liimself, it favors the acquisition of that self-knowledge which is the anchor of his safety. Recollection. — ^This term is but another name for the hcultj of memory, and merely intimates that the impressions made on the mind CULTIVATION OF THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES J 05 by a given object, scene, or event, may bave been, for a time, efl^EUsed, or its elements dispersed, by tbe intervention of otber agencies ; and tbat, witb or without an effort of tbe will to that effect, but by tbe operation of some law of mental association, the idea recurs or re* turns, as it were, and, perhaps, unexpectedly and suddenly, to tbe mind. We are then said to "recollect," {gather again,) or recall what had, for a season, escaped the retentive hold of memory. The very abruptness and suddenness of tbe transition of thought, in such instances, exerts a peculiar power on the reflective action of the mind, and makes it more striking, more impressive, and more ef- fectual. Recollection may thus light up the soul witb the instantane- ous gleam of a rekindled thought, or plunge it into the depths of a past grief; or it may arrest the will on the very brink of remembered evil. A long train of profound reflections may thus be suggested, which may exert an influence on the character of a whole life. A mere flash of reflection has sometimes sufficed, by the instant re- calling of scenes of childhood's innocent enjoyment, or the injunctions of parental wisdom and love to reinstate conscience on its rightful throne, and bring back the tempted to himself, or to restrain him from the first steps of a career of ruin. A remembered promise, pledging honor and truth, has sometimes risen up as a barrier against an approaching tide of overwhelming guilt. A verse of sacred Scrip- ture, darting across the mind, has checked the hand already stretched out to do tbe deed of wickedness which no after tears of penitence could have sufficed to wash out. But not as a preventive only does memory thus subserve man^s highest interests : its recurring suggestions are not less frequently in- spiring prompters to every form of virtue. To the dispirited traveler on the pathway of life, it comes, sometimes, as an inspiring angel, with messages of cheering and encouragement drawn from the remembered virtues of tbe struggling great and good who bave gone before. It points him to " their footprints on the sands of time," and bids him " take heart again." It reminds him tbat his great reliance is not on tbe outward and tbe materia], but on that "hidden strength" of which our greatest poet speaks so elorld of thought, an office similar to that of the latter in the domain of exterior observation. Its Proper Acceptation. — ^The term "conception," in its full and proper acceptation, comprehends the action of the mind in the intel- ligent contemplation or cognition of any object or subject in the whole range of the ideal world. It applies to the recognition or cre- ation of the forms of imagination and the figures of &ncy, not less than to the ideas of pure intellection. In the former relation, it stands connected with the action of the expressive faculties, as dis- cussed in a previous lecture ; but it is in the latter sense, as a contem- plative and reflective faculty, that we now regard it. In this connec- tion, it approaches, sometimes to the sphere of memory, and draws from that source the materials on which it acts, — ^whether these were originally external or internal in their origin. CULTIVATION OF THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES. iQfj Different Views of this Faculty, — Contemplated in the light last entioned, the faculty of conception has, by some eminent writers on intellectual philosophy, been considered as identical with memory; 'while, by others, its definite action on forms furnished by imagination^ lias been regarded as identifying it with that faculty. Hence, we read of the "conceptions of memory," and the "conceptions of imagina- tiion." A third class of authors treating of intellectual topics, evidently regard conception as simply an act of the understanding. The unsatisfactory character of popular usage inT our own tongue, as regards the application of language to mental phenomena, is strik- ingly exhibited in the several arbitrary senses in which the term ** conception " is used, as suggesting imperfection, dimness, or remote- ness in the objects or subjects of contemplation.. We can not, there- fore, rely on any consentaneous use of nomenclature as a guide to the character or action of the faculty in question. Adverting, how- ever, to the highly suggesUye etymological sense of the term " con- ception," as it has been employed in the metaphysical vocabulary of ail nations, for successive ages, we find the susceptive intellect figura- tively represented by it as — when in the .act of forming ideas — impreg- rutted, or fertilized, not only from the various sources of intelligence furnished by the external world of perception and the interior spheres of feeling and imagination, but as possessing a self -vivifying power of creating and contemplating an inner world of its own, more or less analc^ous to that without, though formed of materials purely intel- lectual and spiritual ; — a condition which is exemplified in the exercises of its own conscious intuition, in the sequences of thought, and in the processes of reasoning. Nor is the independent power of this faculty in any case more distinctly perceptible than when, bor- rowing the congenial aid of reason, it inspires with intelligence, and moulds into symmetry the fluctuating forms of imagination which hover in the ideal atmosphere. This strictly interior power of the mind may be regarded as the first step in its consciously reflective action, in which, — not as in the partly involuntary condition of mere remembrance or recollection, it is comparatively passive, or works under a law of necessity,— ^but vol- untarily and deliberately codperates with impressions received from without, with a consciousness of their tendendes and of its own action. It is this power which virtually confers on man a world of his own, — an intelligent sphere of activity, independent, for the time,*of the external universe in which he moves, — a sphere in which his higher intellectual and moral nature has its appropriate scope. The strength, ilie clearness, and the precision with which this faculty acts, deter- mine his rank in the scale of intelligence and moral power. 108 CULTIVATION OF THE REFLECTIVB PACULTIB& Its Susceptibility of Cultivation. — ^Iii the relations of e